Fiji tax dispute centres on retrospective charges

The Australian Travel Industry Association says Fiji’s new Tourism Services Tax is forcing extra charges onto travellers who had already paid in full for their trips.

ATIA set out its objections on 20 August 2026. The group said the tax was designed and rolled out without enough understanding of how travel bookings work.

According to ATIA, the tax is being applied retrospectively. That means families with September school holiday bookings, along with large group, corporate and film production travellers, are being asked to pay more for trips they believed were settled months earlier.

ATIA chief executive Dean Long called that approach unacceptable. “Retrospective application is an absolute no-go. Once a customer has paid, that price is locked in. Sending a fresh bill after the fact is not tax collection, it is a broken promise dressed up as policy.”

The association also said travel agents and tour operators are being left to explain and administer a charge they did not create, could not predict and do not control.

Travel agents face unanswered tax rules

Several practical questions remain unresolved. ATIA said it is still unclear who collects the tax, how it applies to net rates and existing contracts, and where a supplier ends and an agent begins.

Those gaps affect new bookings as well as older ones, according to the industry body. As a result, agents and operators must answer traveller questions without firm guidance on how the tax should work.

ATIA said the Fijian Government did not consult the travel industry in Australia or New Zealand before announcing the measure, even though Australia is Fiji’s largest tourism market and New Zealand is its second-largest.

The group also criticised the timetable. Industry had just over two weeks between the announcement and the tax start date, which ATIA said was far too little time to update contracts, change pricing systems or properly inform travellers.

Long argued the burden is falling on both customers and businesses. He said travellers are exposed to surprise bills, while agents sit in the middle of a policy they had no role in shaping.

Meanwhile, ATIA is in talks with the Fijian Government over the issue. The association said it will update members and the media as those discussions continue.