Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast. It's Wednesday the 4th of September.

You may not have been to Fiji. Actually, relatively few British people have. And that's partly because

it's really quite tricky to get to. A straddling the international date line which guess what means it's 180 degrees

from the Greenwich line of longitude in the beautiful South Pacific but without the great

air links that perhaps you would get to places like New Zealand and to Australia. However, things are

improving in terms of access and to find out However, things are improving in terms of access.

And to find out more, I'm delighted to be joined by Jane West,

who is regional director, UK and Europe for tourism, Fiji.

Jane, you're very welcome.

Bullis Simon, thank you for having me.

Let's figure out, first of all all why people would want to go to

fiji i've been lucky enough to be there a couple of times superb location friendly beautiful

diverse loads of adventures to have talk us through your highlights well i think without any

shadow of a doubt it has to be the people and if you've been to Fiji and had that privilege, they treat every guest as if they're a guest in their own home.

The hospitality is world-renowned.

So I think it really goes to the people and the heart and the generosity, the authenticity that they have and the fact that it's still a living culture.

So, yes, whilst you have all this

beautiful scenery, it's so pristine, incredible beaches and so many islands, it really comes down to the

people. How long would somebody need to go there for a meaningful stay? Because it would be

possible to stay there for two or three days on

your way down to New Zealand? It would indeed, but it would be a shame to miss out. Most people

from the UK though do spend between 12 and 15 days and they will come for diving. They'll come

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