Fiji has introduced a 5% Tourism Services Tax. We think that is Fiji's call to make — and we think our guests should not be the ones who feel it. So we are covering it.
Fiji is investing in itself
Tourism is the engine of the Fijian economy. In 2025 it earned the country F$2.81 billion, up 27% on pre-pandemic levels, with close to a million visitors coming through. Australians alone accounted for F$1.39 billion of that — roughly half.
A country that depends on tourism has every right to ask tourism to contribute to the roads, the airports and the communities that make the holiday possible. The 5% Tourism Services Tax is Fiji doing exactly that.
But a good policy can still land awkwardly
The rollout has been bumpy. The Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association has said businesses remain unclear on how to apply the tax, and government has pressed the industry to get on with it. In the middle of that, some travellers have been quoted one price and charged another at the counter.
That is nobody's fault in particular — most Fijian operators are small businesses working from the same unclear guidance. But it is a poor first impression of a country that is otherwise very good at first impressions.
What we decided to do
We could have added a line to the checkout and let our guests wear it. Instead, every experience booked through FijiDude is 5% off — the tax, covered, so the price you were expecting is the price you pay.
And the operators still get paid in full
This is the part we want to be clear about, because it is the part that usually goes unsaid elsewhere.
The discount comes out of our commission, not the operator's payment. The Fijian family running your village tour, the skipper taking you out to the reef, the driver who meets you at Nadi — they are paid exactly the same whether you use this offer or not.
A discount funded by squeezing a small local business is not generosity, it is a transfer. This one is funded by us earning less per booking. That is a choice we can afford to make and they cannot.
Fiji looks after visitors. We are trying to return the favour.
Anyone who has landed at Nadi knows the welcome. This is our version of it — a small gesture, honestly funded, while Fiji gets on with building the tourism industry the next generation will inherit.
Vinaka Fiji.
