By Anish Chand
Tourism Fiji’s global brand agency, Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand says it was not involved in the production of the promotional video that caused an uproar in Fiji over the wrong translation of Fijian words.
In a response to Island Business queries, Head of PR, Social & Business Development for Saatchi & Saatchi, Isobel Kerr-Newell said “Saatchi & Saatchi was not involved with this piece of work.”
She referred further queries to Tourism Fiji and Island Business has sought additional comments from Tourism Fiji in light of this clarification.
Our query includes asking Tourism Fiji to disclose the producer of the video and whether he or she has been been reprimanded over the gaffe.
In a statement released on Wednesday this week, Tourism Fiji Chief Executive Officer Matt Stoeckel has apologised.
“Tourism Fiji takes full responsibility for the error and sincerely regrets any offence this post may have caused our fellow Fijians. We take this situation very seriously and are reviewing our internal processes to ensure this does not happen again.” he said
A fully-funded agency of the Fijian Government, Tourism Fiji operates on an annual grant of between $30 to $40 (US$14.5m – US$19.4m) million. It is headquartered in Nadi, close to Nadi International Airport on the west coast of Fiji’s main island.