Tourism Fiji has won a PATA Gold Award for its AI-powered approach to the Chinese market. The solution connects travel inspiration, personalized travel planning and booking, and has generated over 500 million views on TikTok, among other things.
The Pacific Asia Travel Association, PATA, has named Tourism Fiji as the winner in the Best Use of Emerging Technology in Marketing category. The award goes to the organization's project "AI-Powered Destination Marketing: Fiji's World-First End-to-End AI Ecosystem for the Chinese Market".
Developed in partnership with TikTok and Alibaba’s travel platform Fliggy, the initiative is aimed specifically at Chinese outbound travelers. The idea is to bring together multiple stages of the customer journey into a cohesive digital ecosystem – from inspiration and AI-generated travel planning to up-to-date prices and booking options.
“This award is a proud moment for Fiji and a strong recognition of our long-term vision for tourism,” said Ilisapeci Matatolu, Chairman of Tourism Fiji.
TikTok inspires – Fliggy drives bookings
In the model, TikTok serves as a channel for inspiration and AI-based trip planning. Fliggy, in turn, uses Alibaba's AI model Qwen to convert travel interest into bookings through, among other things, conversation-based booking, real-time pricing, matching against available offers and personalized recommendations.
Tourism Fiji says the campaign has resulted in a 15 percent conversion rate from travel planning to booking, while the campaigns have also received over 500 million views on TikTok and an estimated advertising value of more than US$1 million.
– What started as the creator campaign ”Exchange the World: Fiji” evolved into a deeper collaboration with TikTok on AI-based travel planning and with Fliggy on intelligent booking solutions, says Paresh Pant, CEO of Tourism Fiji.
China important market for Fiji
Tourism Fiji strengthened its collaborations during a delegation to China in April 2026. The organization then conducted a strategic workshop with TikTok and signed a collaboration agreement with Fliggy on, among other things, product development, destination marketing and digital marketing.
China is currently Fiji's fourth largest international market, and Tourism Fiji describes the country as a strategically important part of the destination's continued growth.
At the same time, extensive investments are planned in Fiji's tourism industry. According to the country's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism Viliame Gavoka, more than 5,500 new hotel rooms and tourism projects worth over three billion Fijian dollars are in the development plans.
