As countries around the world tighten border controls amid concerns over the Omicron COVID-19 variant, Fiji is dialing back its restrictions. The island nation has reopened to fully vaccinated travelers today from partner countries—including visitors from the US, Australia, Canada, the UK, and more.
Publish Time：
2021-12-02 13:51:39
Source：
Lonely Planet
As countries around the world tighten border controls amid concerns over the Omicron COVID-19 variant, Fiji is dialing back its restrictions. The island nation has reopened to fully vaccinated travelers today from partner countries—including visitors from the US, Australia, Canada, the UK, and more.
"Fiji is open," the tourist board declared today as the first flight carrying international tourists in almost two years landed in Nadi from Sydney. Fiji is one of the South Pacific's biggest tourist draws but visitors have been mostly kept away since the beginning of the pandemic. Now it's drawing back the curtains and welcoming tourists under relaxed rules.
Fully vaccinated travelers from partner countries—Australia, New Zealand, the US, the UK, the UAE, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, South Korea, Japan, Qatar, Singapore, Switzerland and most Pacific Island countries and territories—have to provide a negative RT-PCR test taken three days before departure. They will also have to stay three nights in an approved resort and undergo rapid testing, but they're free to move around the resort in the meantime and visit beaches, restaurants and to enjoy activities on offer in the resort.
Once visitors have completed their three-day screening at approved resorts, they're free to travel around the island.
On the heels of the grand reopening—the country's national airline, Fiji Airways resumed flights with the US on December 1, allowing overseas leisure travelers entry for the first time in more than 20 months. The carrier is offering daily flights from Los Angeles, five flights a week from San Francisco, and two flights a week from Honolulu.
"It’s been almost two years since we welcomed international visitors," tourism minister Faiyaz Koya said in an earlier press release. “And in these two years, we’ve struggled, we’ve adapted, and we’ve prepared."
Fiji's partner countries include places where the Omicron variant has been detected such as Australia, Canada and the UK, but the tourism-reliant nation has no plans yet to add more restrictions.
As of December 1, almost 90% of adults in Fiji are fully vaccinated which equates to about 64.7% of the entire population, according to Our World in Data.
