Fiji's April total visitor arrivals drop, but Chinese visitor arrivals up

Provisional statistics show a 1.5 percent drop year-on-year in Fiji's visitor arrivals for April 2016, while the Pacific island country saw an increase of Chinese tourists, the government-owned Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) confirmed Monday.

In April, over 58,000 visitors came to Fiji for holiday or to visit friends and relatives while others were on business visits, said the FBC.

Decreases in visitor arrivals were noted from Australia, the United States, Continental Europe, Canada and Japan, while the number of visitors from New Zealand, China, South Korea and Britain went up.

In the first quarter of 2016, visitor arrivals showed a 6.8 percent increase over the corresponding period in 2015, according to the FBC.

As a pillar for Fiji's economy, the tourism industry rakes in millions of dollars every year from international tourists.