SUVA, Fiji (23 July 2001) -- The number of tourists visiting the South Pacific nation of Fiji slumped 41 percent in the year after a racially inspired coup, the Fiji Visitors Bureau said. The coup in May last year and subsequent attacks by indigenous Fijians on the ethnic Indian minority in the country once known as the "Cannibal Isles" sliced visitor numbers to 250,757 in the year to May 2001 from 423,508 in the previous year. However, with elections scheduled for late August and a relative calm since the end of last year, the Visitors Bureau said in a statement released in New Zealand tourist numbers had begun to improve. The Bureau said the coup, which toppled elected Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, had been disastrous for Fiji's tourism industry -- the backbone of the country's economy. May tourist numbers were down 17 percent on the previous May while for the first five months of 2001 the drop was 27 percent. | | Welcome to paradise! Nationalist rebels led by failed businessman George Speight, who now faces treason charges, stormed Fiji's parliament last year and held most of Chaudhry's multiracial government hostage for nearly two months. During the siege, the Fijian military took control of the country, installing a temporary regime ahead of elections planned for next month. |
