The Best Shark Dive in the World!: The Great Fiji Shark Count

Saturday, February 04, 2012

The Great Fiji Shark Count - Launch!

Here's the official letter to the Fijian tourism operators - details later!

Introducing a Fiji–wide tourism promotion for the month of April 2012

Many of you took part in the Great Fiji Butterflyfish Count in 2008 and 2009, with great success. We are now promoting a new international promotion for the Fiji Islands which will draw attention to Fiji’s excellent marine environment.

The Great Fiji Shark Count!

Full details are available on the website www.fijisharkcount.com, but here is the concept in a nutshell:

Any and all resorts and water-sports operators can take part. This is aimed at guests who are fishing, snorkelling, using glass-bottom boats or SCUBA diving. You can use it as a promotion of water-based activities to existing guests, or as a sales promotion for the month of April.

During ANY of your normal fishing, snorkel, glass-bottom boat or dive trips, guests (and staff we hope) will be asked to record any shark, ray or turtle sightings and fill in a simple form. It’s a fun activity for guests of any age.

Results will be put together by volunteer scientists, and publicised on the website, in reports on Fiji’s reef health, on international websites such as www.globalsharksurvey.com and SharksCount, and marketed at international tourism shows.

We will provide identification and promotional materials with pictures of the sharks, rays and turtles to be recorded, for you to use as part of your build up. You can use these as a pre-activity briefing or even build it up as an activity in its own right.

We will also provide website materials and a registration package that you can use to promote your resort to your own travel retailers, and on your own website. You will also have access to international promotions and be listed on the website www.fijisharkcount.com.

We have put this together FREE OF CHARGE as a national promotion for the Fiji Islands, to enhance Fiji’s identify as a source of pristine coral reefs and natural beauty, and to contribute to the first ever baseline count of sharks in Fiji.

This event is designed to raise awareness of Fiji’s amazing marine environment, and to strengthen Fiji’s national identity in the minds of holidaymakers. If you like this promotion, we intend to have it annually, or more frequently if there is demand.