Photo by Ben Keene

Watching Obama speak to congress today on CNN whilst waiting for my connection to London I was seriously impressed to hear the amount of investment the US will make into renewable energy in the coming years. The President referred to a new site that will track the gargantuan amount of spending: Recovery.gov is a brilliant example in web communication, and the fact that RSS feeds are being used to stream government spending plans is amazing considering how new the technology is.

Recovery for Fiji?

Before I left Fiji last night I shared a grog session with tribe and partners in the Skylodge, Nadi. Sara Jane, her beautiful baby Dylan and his Dad, Shane were there, as was Brad, Casey, Ana and Ruben from Feejee Experience, Cecil from Pacific Sun, Amy (having a few well earned days off island) and Ulai.  Also joining us on the matt was Jo Tuomoto, the new boss of Tourism Fiji. Jo shared with us the dismal state of Fijian Tourism with the combination of global downturn and recent flooding seeing a rapid drop in bookings.  I asked Jo about how, even without the kind of budget Obama has, Fiji might also plan for recovery within their most important source of revenue. Jo talked of looking for new ideas in creative and innovative online marketing that were strong on buzz and talanoa (story).

I’ve no doubt that Fijian tourism will recover – it seems that even with Vorovoro only half full, we’re ahead of most of the pack in terms of ‘occupancy’. Feejee Experience is also doing relatively well compared to the main operators.  So I think that shows something.  The kind of tourism that reflects Fiji as it really is – a collection of villages and communities living out their lives in a stunning environment, regardless of the drama and changes around the world and even in their own country – is the kind of tourism that attracts visitors and engages them.

Now that we’re established in Fiji and are extending our partnership on Vorovoro with Tui Mali, I look forward to more ways we can support the right kind of development for this beautiful and unchanged country that I (and I know I’m not the only non-Fijian to say this) love.

Sota Tale Viti.