How do political coups disrupt Fiji's tourism? Impact assessment on ecotourism at Koroyanitu National Heritage Park (KNHP), Abaca

Abstract

The nexus between mass tourism and politics has been widely validated in tourism literature; nonetheless, the impacts of political putsches on ecotourism are understudied in the context of the Pacific Islands, i.e., Fiji. This study aims to investigate how Fiji's political upheavals impacted ecotourism after examining ecotourist arrivals and revenue generated at KNHP from its inception till 2018. Additionally, it presents a comparative analysis of Fiji coups on tourism and ecotourism and examines the recovery pattern of ecotourism in the post-coup stage. The study implies both empirical and non-empirical methods. This research is based on field visits to the Abaca ecotourism project, Lautoka, from 2017 to 2019, and has employed quantitative data of Abaca's tourist revenue records; supplemented by conducting oral unstructured interviews of the Abaca project manager through talanoa sessions. The collected data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2010 and STATA and Augmented Dickey Fullar (ADF) test to check the stationarity. The research has defied the antecedent arguments of the failure of ecotourism projects in Fiji and made a first-ever comparative analysis of ecotourism data with mass tourism in relation to post-coup recovery tenure. It postulates an apparent correlation of the success of this ecotourism park with the democratically elected government of Fiji. The Abaca ecotourist park displayed potential to emerge as an ecotourism hub in the entire South Pacific, provided the democratically elected government could sustain in Fiji, which has been tagged as ‘coup-coup land’. Henceforth, this study can be replicated for similar destinations in the world.

Conflicts and tourists’ destination choice intention: a study of Kashmir Valley in India

“…Similarly, in politically unstable destinations, a negative correlation has been found between attitude and DI (Eid et al, 2019). Similarly, Kundra et al (2021) argue that political instability has a negative effect on DI. Literature has shown that in stable contexts, a favourable DI is more likely to lead to a favourable attitude towards visiting the destination (Huang and Van der Veen, 2019 in China;Song et al, 2014 in South Korea).…”

“…The impact of media coverage on the DI and PR associated with visiting such destinations is critical (Garg, 2015). For example, the widespread circulation of images depicting violence and political unrest in Fiji by international media in 2000 resulted in a significant blow to Fijian tourism as many countries issued travel advisories advising their citizens to avoid Fiji (Kundra et al , 2021). It is, therefore, essential to understand that even though a crisis may be temporary, significant attention given by conventional and social media may enhance tourist concerns for a long period (Jin et al , 2019).…”

Tourist experience at port and town: assessing cruiser satisfaction during self-organized onshore excursions at Lautoka Port, Fiji, in 2018–2019

“…Fiji is described as the ‘lands of smiles’. Desai (1973) and Harrison and Pratt (2010) state that Fiji's tourism became the highest foreign exchange earner between the 1960s and 2010, but the political instability induced by the coups of 1987, 2000 and 2006 has resulted in a drop in tourism ( Kundra et al., 2021 ). According to Hall (1996) , geographic isolation, limited terrestrial resources and infrastructure, limited landmass and mineral resources and weak industrial growth are all issues that Fiji faces.…”

An assessment of the role of safety in digital nomads' destination selections

“…Moreover, political stability in a destination is a critical factor influencing tourists' safety. Political instability is also acknowledged as a factor that undermines tourists' sense of safety (Bianchi and Milano, 2024; Kundra et al. , 2021).…”