Summarised transcript from official press conference by Fiji’s Prime Minister (10 October 2021)

Fiji’s international border for tourism will re-open firstly to a list of travel partners, which includes Australia, New Zealand, United States of America, United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Qatar, Germany, Spain, France, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Switzerland, Japan and most Pacific Island Countries and Territories. To come to Fiji, travellers must have spent at least 10 days in any of these places. This list isn’t fixed, Countries can be added as they achieve widespread vaccination of their populations.

Fiji will have a no-jab, no-fly policy. Travellers aged 18 years and above must be fully vaccinated with either the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca or — and this is a new addition — the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccines. And before departing for Fiji, anyone aged 12 years and above must show a negative RT-PCR result for COVID-19 from a test taken within three days of departure. At Nadi Airport, immediately upon arrival, all travellers must download careFIJI onto their phones.

From 11 November, we’ll re-open our border to these travel-partner countries in earnest. There will be no traditional quarantine requirement  Tourists from travel-partner countries will have no quarantine requirement from 11 November onward ahead of our official reopening on 1 December. Instead, after showing proof of vaccination and testing negative for the virus 72 hours prior to their departure, they will arrive in Fiji and head straight to their hotel.

The Care Fiji Commitment Certification will be the industry standard for COVID-safe tourism. It will require all hotels and excursions to meet the highest standards of comfort, health and safety.

To our friends in Australia and New Zealand and to the residents of other countries we’re preparing to welcome, our message is simple: Fiji is ready to welcome you back to our shores. We are entirely confident in our ability to manage the risk associated with quarantine-free travel. Our planes are prepared. Our airports are adapted. I’ve seen their protocols first-hand. The Fiji Airways team have been awaiting this day for months. They are more than ready to fly you safely to our shores, and they have the highest possible SKYTRAX 5-Star COVID-19 Airline Safety Rating and the Diamond certification by the Airline Passenger Experience Association or APEX to show for it. Every Fijian hotel and tour operator in Fiji will be certified under the “Care Fiji Commitment” program. And our people’s world-renowned hospitality is as wonderful as you all remember. Our first scheduled tourism flight to the country — on Fiji Airways — will be on 1 December. Given that we are in the process of readjusting in the midst of so many changes, we will also put Daylight Savings Time on hold for this year. It will also make the reopening of scheduled commercial air service much smoother if we don’t have to be concerned about shifting arrival and departure times, which may look like a simple thing but requires some significant logistical adjustments domestically and internationally. That’s a broad overview.