Changes to Fiji holidays revealed for Australians, who only want vaxxed travellers to fly

If you test positive to Covid while in Fiji, don’t stress. The whole hotel won’t be shut down. Latest on Fiji travel.

Packages to Fiji are so good even die-hard Bali fans will find it hard to refuse post-Covid.

Australians are paying just a little over $1000 for packages to Fiji including return flights and five nights accommodation at five-star resorts including meals.

Rod Carrington from My Holiday said the phones hadn’t stopped ringing since Fiji announced its reopening to international travellers quarantine-free from December 1. All you need to enter the island paradise is be fully vaxxed and return a negative Covid test before departing and on arrival.

Fiji Airways, Qantas, Virgin and JetStar all fly there – with Fiji Airways partnering with selected hotels to offfer a minimum 45 per cent off packages.

“We’ve been selling Fiji for many, many years and I’ve not seen packages and offers anywhere close to this at the moment,” Mr Carrington said.

Christmas and New year are always popular dates but bookings are being made right through until the end of next year.

Aussies will be able to go to Fiji soon. Picture: Supplied

Mr Carrington said he expects the great packages won’t last long.

“For the short term these packages will be available but Fiji has always had great offers on sale,” he said.

Tourism Fiji CEO Brent Hill said operators are working to allow guests to do PCR tests at the hotel and reduce the cost of the tests.

If you test positive while in Fiji, you are required to isolate in your hotel room for 10 days.

“It isn’t one of these things where someone tests positive and they shut down the whole resort,” he said.

“It’s a case of if the worst happened and you did test positive then you would be isolated in that same resort that you are staying in ideally. Most cases if you are staying at the bigger hotels they have that capacity, but if you are staying at a really small, private hotel they would probably do a deal with a bigger hotel nearby and they would move you there to an isolation room that is essentially a normal hotel room so you still have a lot of that really nice professional stuff, balcony etc. You just need to do that for 10 days and get your negative test and then you can go back.”

Mr Hill said it is “absolutely unlikely that you would end up in a Fijian hospital” as there are a number of private clinics that operate with the resorts.

“If the absolute worst happened and you needed oxygen there’s companies like EMS that are actually set up in the resorts that would bring a nurse to do that,” Mr Hill said.

“We are doing everything we can to ensure that there is a safety net underneath everybody. We just want people to relax and enjoy and not think about Covid much,” he said.

Some of the best Fiji offers include: Warwick Fiji, Outrigger Fiji, Shangri-La, Sheraton Fiji,

AUSSIES WANT UNVAXXED BANNED FROM TRAVEL

Travel-starved Australians can’t wait to pack their bags and get a change of scenery but most believe only the fully vaccinated should be allowed to escape from their homes.

A survey of 1500 Australians commissioned by Medibank Travel found the majority of respondents said they miss travel (71 per cent) – particularly in one state.

Victorians, which endured the longest lockdown in the world, yearned for an escape the most (75 per cent), followed by New South Wales residents (73 per cent) and Queenslanders (70 per cent). South Australians (66 per cent), West Australians (62 per cent) and Tasmanians (62 per cent) rounded up the bottom three.

But, as the Delta strain continues to challenge governments around the world, many Australians believe the unvaxxed should be banned from travel.

Safety is front of mind with the large majority of respondents saying they believe only fully vaccinated people should be allowed to fly interstate (76 per cent). Similarly, most respondents said only fully vaccinated people should be allowed to drive across state borders (72 per cent).

Asked about their holiday plans for the next 12 months, just over half of Australians said they plan to do a driving holiday rather than board a flight overseas (54 per cent). Of these, most are aged 25 to 34 (61 per cent).

Australians can’t wait to travel again.

Australia’s soaring vaccination rates have supercharged the return of travel.

Qantas flights from Sydney to Los Angeles and London are due to take off on November 1, with Singapore legs due to start on November 23.

Direct flights to Delhi and Fiji are also planned in December, while people will also be able to fly to Japan and Canada.

Tourism Fiji CEO Brent Hill said resorts are reporting solid booking with the Radisson Blu in Denarau more than 50 per cent sold for December 1 – the day of the first flight of arrivals.

“Bookings are still flooding in, especially now that Victoria has opened up quarantine free,” he said.

However, the cost of Covid testing requirements before departure, on arrival and return are top of Australians’ concerns.

“The greatest concern is around testing requirements – they’re hoping that Australia drops the PCR test requirement to leave and re-enter Australia, and change this to cheaper, quicker rapid tests,” he said.

“They also want to know best time to go, best deals available and best places to go, and which airline to go with – best route in and out of Australia.”

Originally published as Changes to Fiji holidays revealed for Australians, who only want vaxxed travellers to fly