If there were ever a way to test your leadership mettle, it would be to move to a foreign country in the middle of a pandemic with the task of leading the arrival revival of the nation’s number one industry, tourism. Brent Hill may have the dream job now, but it wasn’t without its challenges to start.
As the Executive Director of Marketing for the South Australian Tourism Commission at the time living in his hometown Adelaide, Tourism Fiji offered Brent Hill the highly coveted Tourism Fiji CEO role during a lockdown.
As you can imagine, organising what would typically be rudimentary tasks to relocate, such as booking removalists and moving out, and renewing passports to move to Fiji, was not an easy feat.
To add to the complexity further, Fiji was also in a strict lockdown once Brent and his wife did land in Nadi, so he then had to meet his team and start his new chapter via zoom.
What happened next? Read on for Brent’s story.
What’s happening in your business now, and how does the forthcoming period look?
People are coming back! We just got our July numbers in, and just over 78,000 tourists came to Fiji in July, which is 82% of July 2019, and was our best month ever.
So, to pick that apart a little bit, we had the most Australians in a month that we’ve ever had in Fiji, which is phenomenal.
Obviously, our Asian markets are a lot quieter. Our European markets are also quiet because of the connection through Singapore or Hong Kong. So, looking ahead, we want to keep the momentum going in the US, New Zealand and Australia and work hard to capture the rest of the world.
What are you excited about right now?
I’m excited about the growth in new markets. We have just resumed the Adelaide route with two flights a week, which is fantastic.
This morning, I returned from North America, where we promoted two flights to Fiji from Vancouver, Canada. That’s where we think we’ll see some real growth.
I think people in North America are looking for a destination other than Mexico, the Caribbean or Hawaii, so we have an opportunity to make an impact over there. I’m certainly excited about those new markets.
Are there any key trends you are seeing that are driving change in your business or across the industry?
People are travelling in earnest. There are extreme terms like revenge travel out there, but it’s not necessarily about that. I think people are seizing the moment now more than ever. If they have always wanted to go on a trip with family or friends, they are booking that trip.
We see a lot of multi-generational travel and a lot of bucket list travel.
People also really want to play a role around sustainability and the culture they visit, so that is influencing their travel. I think Fiji is really well placed for these sorts of trends.
What are the biggest challenges for travel?
Even though we are moving out of the shadow of the pandemic in North America, it’s still an issue in Asia.
We also have staffing issues and logistical issues around the world. People are a bit more nervous around long-haul travel because bags are being lost and flights are getting cancelled.
Then the apparent issues around fuel prices, cost of living, and inflation. So, there are definitely some headwinds, but I think the passion for travel overrides all of that.
What are the biggest opportunities?
We are seeing that low-density, authentic, and culturally significant travel is important to people. They want to give something back. And, of course, they also want five-star luxury.
We’ve seen Australia, New Zealand, and the US come back strong, and I’m excited to see what happens as the rest of the world returns to travel.
How important is leadership right now, and what does leadership look like?
I think leadership is critical. I firmly believe that you only win when your team wins. And I think in that sense, that’s one thing that Fiji has done well. We’ve had strong leadership from the Fijian Government and Fiji Airways, which helped team Fiji win.
I take inspiration from confident leaders who put themselves out there to grow and develop while trying to balance all the factors and make good logical, sound, evidence-based decisions.
What would you like to see change or more of?
Globally, I’d like to see more ingenuity around climate change, with companies and governments investing in the right technologies. We are at the forefront of climate change here in Fiji. So that’s of genuine interest to me. I would like to see that accelerate.
How key is collaboration in the industry?
One thing that I’m forever grateful for is that we’ve always had strong team collaboration. The Fiji government has been swift and decisive through the pandemic.
Fiji has one of the highest vaccination rates, which is phenomenal. There were a lot of conversations about how we could keep everybody safe while getting tourism back. That approach was borne out of collaboration, and it worked well.
Do you think there’s enough emphasis on sustainability and travel to address the climate crisis?
I think everybody is coming in late, and we could do more.
I think there’s a fear factor because not everything is sustainable. But I think we all understand that we’ve got to take each other on the journey and agree that we don’t have everything sorted, but we are doing great things.
Many of our hotels are minimising plastic and are making significant changes. I was only talking to the Sofitel this morning; they are giving guests reusable water bottles on arrival, which guests can refill via filtered water fountains around the property.
I get excited about the future when I hear people talking about sustainable innovations, such as moving ferries and large ships to hydrogen. Initiatives like that are now starting to happen.
What are your personal learnings from the pandemic?
I think my most significant learning is recognising the fragility of what we have. When the pandemic started, I was working in South Australia, where the tragic bushfires immediately preceded COVID. So, I saw how things could change or be taken away in a really short space of time.
So, while I think it’s essential to plan, it’s also important to understand that those plans can change quickly. We can’t take anything for granted.
And I realised just how valuable travel is for quality of life, and clearly, so did many others.
What’s your message to the industry?
Now that things are really starting to crank up, we need to heed Churchill’s words and ensure we don’t waste a good crisis. The pandemic was a huge opportunity to realise how fragile our planet is, and I think that’s important.
You can find out more about Brent or get in touch via Linkedin
