Vatulele Island Resort was, in its heyday, one of the most exclusive resorts in Fiji. Its A$800/night is roughly A$1800 in todays money, and the quality matched the price. There were a number of bures (some with their own pool outside), and a couple of villas.

However, the story between then and now is quite convoluted and hard to follow (and what follows may well be wrong as well!). It passed through a couple of owners before it was bought by a Sydney-based property developer in February 2012. It closed shortly after for a refit and never re-opened. During that time, it was used by the new owner for a few parties, and there’s at least 1 press release trumpeting the completion of a US$30m renovation including expansion and complete replacement of the resort infrastructure. At somepoint, a retired cruise ship was dragged onto the beach, then a cyclone hit.

The loss of the resort cost the locals significantly. Not only in terms of jobs, but the airport closed too, and the cell tower was decommissioned so they lost mobile coverage as well.

Since my visit in 2019, the bank foreclosed the loan to the property developer and sold the lease to a new owner. He arrived in Vatulele on his superyacht (complete with helicopter) and met with the locals whilst his security guarded the doors. The thought of needing such security in Fiji is derisible! The chiefs representative we met was laughing at the very idea.

The new owner managed to get the ship cut up and removed, so thats some progress - however cyclone Harold did untold further damage to the resort and nature has truly taken over. The resulting mess would make starting a new resort incredibly difficult. For example, this is one of the better bures (you can see how this matches the room in the second photo above).

Many of the bures have been so undermined, that they would need demolishing and rebuilding. The whole pool from one bure ended up halfway across the beach.

There’s no doubt that unlimited funds could bring the resort back - but it would take a huge effort!

The locals would dearly love the resort to be re-opened, and the jobs to come back - and I really hope the new owner can make that happen (and that it wasn’t russian money that was involved!).