The latest tourist accommodation statistics released by the Bureau of Statistics show that hotel room occupancy rate for the third quarter of 2007 stood at 52.5 percent compared to 58.9 percent for the same period in 2006.

According to the Fiji Islands Bureau of Statistics, the total rooms occupied were 393,169 compared to 434,982 for the same period in 2006.

The total takings for hotels from accommodation, sales of food, liquor, telephone and other miscellaneous charges, recorded a decrease of 18.4 percent, reducing the total hotel turnover to $114.6m for the third quarter of 2007 compared to 2006.

Local guests at hotels increased from 124,069 to 138,365. The largest number of people staying at the hotels in Fiji in the third quarter of last year were Australians with a total of 291,382.

Hotel employment seems to have improved as the employee numbers at hotels stands at 9,122 for the third quarter of 2007 compared to 9,172 for the third quarter of 2006. Full time employment numbers are 7026 people while there are a total of 2096 part-timers.

Meanwhile, according to the Reserve Bank of Fiji, visitor arrivals increased by 19.3 percent for the first quarter of this year.