Fiji Country Tourism

The words "Vale ni Lotu" were interpreted as "toilet" - if it actually means a place of worship oder a temple. iTaukei is the Fijian tongue of the Fijians and is used by about half a million of them. In the meantime the video and contributions have been deleted from the online community.

This Fijian government-funded agency's error has been severely criticized both by the country's political opponents and by those who use the Fijian public service system, a country of high religion. Indignant & nauseated that an organisation like Tourism Fiji would allow an advertising film to be published on their online advertising platform without due review or proofreading.

It was a grave offense and degradation to the first colonists of this country and the Fijiese. "Fiji's tax payers give Fiji tourism $F43.5 million ($28 million) per year in the form of subsidies for tourism in the form of commercial and operational costs, and if this is a random sampling of what we can ask of them by using our taxpayers' dollar, then perhaps we should check their allocations in this year's budget," said opposition leader Ro Teimumu Kepa.

Matt Stoeckel, Tourism Fiji Chief Executive Officer, acknowledged that the tape was the outcome of outsourcings to foreign suppliers. While his organization worked tirelessly to encourage Fiji as a travel destinations for travelers abroad, especially Australians, this was not the kind of advertising he was seeking. "As a tourism association we certainly do not adhere to the mission that every advertisement is a good advertisement", he said.

"It is the most widely used Fiji dialect and I urge the tourist and all those who visit to study it. It is not too hard, the orthography is quite uniform," he said. "Vale is the Fiji term for home, and lotus is the default for religions, especially Christianity.