Prince Harry and Meghan’s 2018 Fiji Visit

In October 2018, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex — Prince Harry and Meghan — included Fiji as part of their 16-day Pacific tour, one of the first major royal tours to follow their May 2018 wedding. The Fiji leg of the visit spanned two days and took in both Suva and Nadi, generating considerable international media coverage and giving Fiji a moment of sustained global attention that the country’s tourism industry was well-positioned to capitalise on.

The Fiji itinerary

The visit was structured around themes that have been central to both Harry and Meghan’s public work: youth leadership, gender equality, and environmental issues.

In Suva, the couple attended a reception hosted by the President of Fiji and visited the University of the South Pacific, where Meghan spoke at a gender equality event — a particularly resonant setting given USP’s role as a pan-Pacific educational institution serving students from across the region. Harry also met with Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, whose government had been increasingly prominent in global conversations about climate change and Pacific resilience.

Near Nadi, activities included conservation-related events that highlighted Fiji’s marine environment and its global significance. The Mamanuca Islands and the waters around them were visible backdrop to coverage that reached audiences who might never otherwise have thought of Fiji as a destination.

The moment in context

Fiji was in an interesting position in late 2018. Under PM Bainimarama, the country had positioned itself as a serious voice on global climate issues — Fiji held the presidency of COP23 in Bonn in 2017, the first Pacific island nation to do so, and the international profile that came with that role was still very much present when the royal tour arrived. Having the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in Fiji, covering environmental themes, aligned naturally with the country’s international messaging.

For tourism, the effect was straightforward: global media ran images of Harry and Meghan in Fiji. Those images reached audiences who might associate “Fiji” primarily with resort brochures and Fiji Water bottles, and suddenly they were seeing a country with genuine environmental leadership credentials and an interesting capital city. That kind of coverage has value that conventional advertising can’t replicate.

For travellers visiting Suva

The locations associated with the 2018 royal visit — particularly the area around Suva’s government precinct and waterfront, and the University of the South Pacific campus — are genuinely worth visiting. Suva is an underrated city by Pacific standards: it has a proper market, an excellent national museum, the Grand Pacific Hotel (a beautifully restored colonial-era landmark), and a working harbour that gives it a character very different from the resort strips of the Coral Coast.

By: Sarika Nand