Fiji received a record 70,324 visitors in January 2024.

The Fiji Bureau of Statistics latest provisional numbers show that visitor arrivals for the first month of this year was a record for January and represented an increase of 4.2% compared to 2023.

However, the January 2024 arrivals marks a decrease of 15.1% when compared to December 2023, where 82,820 arrived into the country.

In 2023 and 2022, visitor arrivals for January stood at 67,502 and 16,502 respectively.

Visitor arrivals levels in January 2024 is 7.6% higher than the pre-COVID era in January 2020.

Of the 70,324 visitors, 70,191 came by air while 133 came by sea. The sea arrivals were mostly seamen on fishing vessels (74) and 59 arrivals were by yacht.

For January 2024, visitors arriving for holiday purposes accounted for 79.1% of total arrivals, 5.6% came to visit their friends or relatives, 1.7% came for business purposes, while 13.6% visited Fiji for other reasons

The majority of visitors were in the age range of 25-64 years (60.7%), which accounts for the vast majority of the working age population. Children aged 14 and below accounted for 18.7% of the January visitor arrivals; 12.0% were youths aged 15-24 with the remaining 8.6% comprising those in the predominantly retirement age group of 65 and over.