Page 15 - IB August 2020

InDepth InDepth

(VAT Monitoring System) this year because it still needs so
SP: And bill to be paid electronically? much work. If we are going to make Fiji a more attractive
Lockington: Yes, as much as possible don’t use cash. For destination, compete with every other country dropping their
buffets, you will need to have what they call the sneeze prices, than we needed to review our taxes, our departure
guards; those plastic covers that allow you to view the food. tax, the basic things that add into the cost of having a holiday
You can see what the buffet is but you can’t breathe on it. in Fiji and we are really grateful that government has seen
You won’t actually be able to serve yourselves, you will need that it needed to review those areas.
to have a server even though it’s a buffet. So lots of things The tax review gives us more to pass on to our potential
like that, making it easier for them because that is what visitors and key markets and that additionally we are safe to
travelling is all about. You have a choice of where you want to return to. We can make Fiji quite attractive because every-
go, where you want to eat, what you want to do, but how you body else is going to make their own country really attractive.
do that without limiting your choices is what our members are Everyone is going to be dropping to rock bottom prices and
grappling with right now. Fiji’s going to compete in a very, very loud world that has a
One has to be innovative and clever with how you do things. lot more money than us to throw at their destination market-
At the same time, you need to train your staff that they ing so that includes reviewing who our target markets are.
can’t shake hands, they can’t hug, they can’t be spontane-
ous although that’s what makes us Fijians. That’s what makes SP: So the Association has been going out assisting its
tourism-tourism in Fiji. membership, which are the hotels, resort operators, but
What I see in hotels, I don’t see in the other businesses like when it comes to helping industry workers, that is for the
in retail for instance. I don’t see the front line staff keeping workers unions to look after?
enough distance from where they serving you, having enough Lockington: Yes, we deal with the unions as well in terms of
sanitizers available and constantly using it. I was in a bank a helping our members get a better collective agreement.
few months ago and I watched the lady serving and when it On behalf of hotel workers, we worked with the FNPF (Fiji
was my turn I asked her, ‘you know they all had sanitizers but National Provident Fund) to make sure that the people could
I didn’t see anybody using it. You need to get into the habit access financial assistance. even when the hotel workers had
of using it after serving every customer. You just need a little already been released from worked and had all gone home.
bit. It needs to become a habit so you do it without thinking. We worked with FNPF to support workers access their funds
Because when the border opens, you’re at risk. You’re at a even when they were far from their workplace. Again, COVID
huge risk. Touching money, touching people’s cards, touching forces us to review how we do our usual business and work on
their deposit slips and what other paper they share. amending it to make it work in these unusual circumstances.
We are also working with FRCS and other agencies to deal
SP: Everyone needs to embrace this whole new regime with an almost dormant tourism industry that even when
change. doors are closed, still have some operations keeping the prop-
Lockington: It’s a whole new regime change. Suva I believe erties secure, maintained and waiting for borders to open.
has been slower to implement many of the things that are be- Quite often, we are prompting and reminding agencies that
ing already implemented across the board in tourism. It’s like this is no longer business as usual.
they are in their own bubble. It’s as if nothing is happening At the same time, we are dealing with constantly chang-
and maybe that is because we’re being cocooned because the ing situations. The borders closed, a cyclone came close,
borders are still closed. we had a few lockdowns that tested our 24/7 operational
abilities and a curfew that has become more tolerable. The
SP: What kind of timeline is your team working on? ERA amendment recognised COVID as an “act of God” but
Lockington: At the earliest, it’s at the end of the year only employers and the Unions appeared to understand what
otherwise its next year probably around February, March. But this meant. While unemployment continued to rise, domestic
I don’t think anything is going to happen from New Zealand tourism opened up but has its weekday lows and its weekend
because there is an election on. Australia has had many flares highs. We now have some limited and regulated incoming
ups so they trying to control that. Its difficult do any sort of visitors through the Blue Lane and the managed return of Fiji
prediction but we were always aware that this wasn’t going citizens and work permit holders. The new budget announced
to go away very quickly. We’ve always been talking about the sweeping changes to tax structures and import duties that will
last quarter. Last quarter starts around September, October eventually cascade down to food and beverage pricing and
November, so if nothing happens by the end of August, they hopefully other areas.
need to start shifting it to October or November. “The only thing that has been certain from the time it was
announced that flights were being cancelled and the borders
SP: Fiji’s 2020-2021 national budget is geared at assist- were being closed, was that nothing was going to be normal
ing this process of the new normal in the industry? anymore. And it has not, even if Suva still cannot feel it.
Lockington: We do believe that government understands
how difficult it is to do business under normal circumstances. publisher@islandsbusiness.com
We pushed for things like deferring the VMS implementation

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