Is Fiji's tourism sector on the right path to successfully recovering from the COVID-19 crisis? A rapid assessment

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 global pandemic has brought far-reaching and complex repercussions. Small Island Nations (SINs) are particularly devastated by the pandemic because of their peculiar characteristics. One of the worst-affected Pacific countries is Fiji. The nation has suffered because of the shattering of its booming tourism sector for almost two years. However, on 1 December 2021, the country reopened its border thanks to the effort exerted to fast-reach one of the highest immunization rates globally. This paper offers a rapid assessment of the reopening process and the potential for Fiji's tourism recovery and contributes to the current body of knowledge regarding tourism recovery in SINs.

KEYWORDS:

• Care Fiji Commitment (CFC)
• COVID-19 pandemic
• crisis management
• small island nations
• tourism recovery
• post-pandemic tourism‌
• Fiji islands

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.