The Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association says the confusion and backlash now erupting across Fiji’s key source markets had been flagged to the Fiji Government months earlier, and was avoidable.
The association says it raised concerns the moment the 5% levy was announced, without any industry consultation, and proposed simpler, less disruptive ways to support Fiji Airways directly, rather than a blunt tax bolted onto the wider tourism supply chain.
“We tried to make this work from day one, and we were ignored at every turn,” says FHTA ceo Fantasha Lockington. “We asked that pre-booked and paid holidays be exempted, the same treatment given under the old Service Turnover Tax. We asked for clarity on the sunset clause. Both requests were left out of the final Gazette, without explanation.”
The FHTA also asked for a minimum of four weeks between the release of the interpretation guidelines and the tax’s implementation date. But the guidelines were not finalised
until Fri, 10 days before the tax takes effect 01 Sep, it says. “We handed government a clear, specific warning of exactly how complicated this was going to be to administer,” says Lockington. “That warning was not heard, or it was heard and dismissed. Either way, the result is the mess our travel partners are now scrambling to clean up, with days rather than weeks to do it.”
Agents managing multi-resort itineraries have described a process with no consistent collection method, says the FHTA, forcing them to re-invoice wholesalers, re-invoice clients, and reconcile bookings that were settled months ago. “New Zealand agents raised the same alarm at this week’s Fiji roadshow events in Christchurch and Auckland.”
The FHTA warns that Fiji’s reputation as ‘a credible, well-run destination in markets with no shortage of alternatives’ risks being damaged, not because of the tax itself, ‘but because government would not listen when we told them exactly how to avoid this outcome.’
