'Bad news tends to travel at the speed of light and once the reputation as a safe haven is lost, it could take years before it could be regained’


The sharp increase in publicised incidents of violent crime has seriously begun to tarnish the long standing image of the Pacific islands as a haven of peace, friendliness and tranquility with few peers anywhere else in the world.

While there has been a steady increase in crime and violence across the islands over the years, this has mainly involved local residents, leaving out tourists and foreigners barring stray incidents few and far between.

This is now changing. Last month’s assault on a visiting Australian yachtie couple at Natovi jetty in Fiji’s Tailevu area is a case in point. The couple was robbed of more than $9000 worth of personal effects during the assault incident. This has rightly raised the alarm in tourism circles.

Despite repeated political upheavals in many of the Pacific islands down the decades, tourism has always tended to bounce back quickly. This is simply because foreign tourists have always perceived the islands as being inherently safe with political problems only concerning islanders themselves.

That is the reason why following each of Fiji’s coups, after an initial dip in numbers, the tourist industry has by and large pulled through even when the political situation has continued to be one of concern for neighbouring governments.

Tourists and holidaymakers particularly from New Zealand and Australia have rarely heeded their own governments’ travel advisories beyond a certain reasonable timeframe after each serious political event and continued visiting the islands trusting that local political incidents are unlikely to affect them. This is what repeated surveys of those travelling to the islands have revealed.

But personal assaults of the kind that happened in Tailevu are quite another matter. They might well signal the advent of a new wave of crime against tourists—something that could seriously begin to affect not just Fiji’s but the entire region’s tourism industry.

As is by and large the case with all service industries, in the tourism industry too, it is word of mouth that matters most and a sullied reputation could damage as vital an industry as tourism—the region’s largest single employer and revenue earner.

It is only natural that in this day and age of sudden terrorist acts and sporadic violence, personal safety is topmost on any tourist’s mind. In fact, personal safety and the complete absence of the kind of political and sectarian violence that has plagued other parts of the world—even well-known tourist centres—is what has been the Pacific Islands’ main attraction in recent years.

That assiduously built reputation of a safe haven for tourists is now under threat when reports of such personal attacks as this one begin making the rounds. The Fiji tourism industry’s urgent concern is completely understandable. Though the country has put in place a police force exclusively to cater to tourists’ needs, it would be physically impossible for it to police all areas of any territory completely. This is especially so since an increasing number of visitors to the islands prefer to be away from the main tourist areas to spend time closer to the wilderness in relatively isolated places as in the case of the Australian couple.

It would be too much to expect resource-starved governments to scale up policing. In fact, an increased physical police presence on the streets would rob islands countries of their very charm and aura as safe and happy holiday destinations.

But it is good to see the governments are gearing up to deal with it. For instance, the Fiji judiciary’s initiative to deal with crime against tourists instantly—even working on weekends and public holidays—in light of the fact that tourists have little time to spend before they leave for their home countries is indeed a great confidence building measure.

It is important for the governments and administrations to do more to stop these incidents turning into a trend that begins to have serious implications on tourist numbers—something that is bound to happen sooner rather than later if left unchecked. Bad news tends to travel at the speed of lightning and once the reputation as a safe haven is lost, it could take years before it could be regained.

But the authorities and governments can only do so much. What is required here is for islanders themselves to realise that they commit such acts at their own serious peril and that of their very livelihoods.

Of course, an underlying factor here could well be the increasing economic hardships and frustrations islanders have had to face in the midst of continuing political turmoil in some of their nations. Indeed an increase in such unprecedented violent incidents against tourists—a traditionally much welcomed and respected segment—could be seen as manifestations of tough and unforgiving economic and political times.

This deeper problem is for the islands leaders to address in the long-term interest of the well-being and prosperity of their people. They cannot afford to squander away the great wealth of beauty, tranquility and a peaceable image given to the islands by mother nature.