THE occupancy rate at Mana Island Resort and Spa Fiji in the Malolo group of islands is at 90 per cent.

Despite being closed from January to July, resort chief operating officer Hiroshi Matsumoto said the popular holiday retreat had been able to fill up their rooms within the month of August.

“Our biggest market as always is Australia and New Zealand with about 80 per cent occupancy,” he said.

“The remaining 10 per cent is made up of our Japanese visitors.”

He said the resort also had a very high returnee rate testament to the warmth of the staff members and popularity of the property to regular guests.

“We always have returnees coming back to the resort every year and some of them even stay for a month.”

Mr Matsumoto said this year the resort had been strengthening its sustainability capacity as it strives to become more efficient and self-sufficient.

“We are the first resort to have its own sewerage system and that is something that we are very proud of.

“I believe in order for us to continue our efforts in protecting our environment we have to be a resort that is able to supply its own fresh vegetables and be able to recycle most of its waste.

“We have a desalination system that we use to supply water to all of our rooms and we have our own farm that supplies fresh vegetables to our kitchen.”

He said they expected the number of guests travelling to the resort in the coming weeks to further increase as it drew closer to the tourism peak season.