1. What is Koro Sun, and where does it fit in Fiji’s tourism sector?
Koro Sun Resort & Rainforest Spa sits on 150 acres where the rainforest meets the reef, just outside Savusavu on Vanua Levu, Fiji’s second-largest island. Our 57 bures and villas range from family garden bures to adults-only Floating and Edgewater bures on our private lagoon. We also have three restaurants, the Rainforest Spa, a rainforest pitch-and-putt course and our own marina. Most visitors to Fiji never leave the main island. Koro Sun is where they come to find the Fiji they imagined before they got here. Among Fijians, Savusavu is known as “Fiji’s Hidden Paradise.” It’s a 70-minute flight from Nadi, and what our guests spend here stays in the local community.
2. What is your philosophy, and what makes Koro Sun distinctive?
The setting is the experience, so we build around it, not over it. Guests can snorkel the reef off our beach in the morning, have a massage in a spa bure set into the rainforest at midday, and kayak the lagoon at high tide.
What sets us apart is that families and couples both feel the resort was made for them. Families have room to spread out, plus programming, with options from rainforest garden bures to pool villas on the water’s edge. Children 12 and under stay and eat free, and there is a Kids Club with nanny service. Couples can retreat to our adults-only Edgewater Floating Bures and Edgewater Bures on the lagoon. You can bring three generations of your family here, or come for your honeymoon, and both trips feel right.
3. Tell us about the ownership and your family’s vision for the resort.
My father, Jack Young, an architect and developer from Colorado, opened Koro Sun in 2000 and designed it so the buildings belong to the landscape. We have owned and run it as a family ever since. I have led our marketing and sales for many years, including the launch of the Edgewater Floating Bures. A family-owned resort feels different. Our staff greet every guest with a song, and the people making decisions know every path on the property. We keep reinvesting. The Rainforest Spa was renovated in 2025, our Two-Bedroom Pool Bures were rebuilt this year with lofts so they sleep six, and we opened a Rainforest Yoga Pavilion.
4. What are the opportunities and obstacles of operating on Vanua Levu?
Being off the main tourist circuit is our biggest asset and our biggest operating challenge. Guests take a 70-minute Fiji Link flight from Nadi and a 15-minute coastal drive, and that extra step brings people who want something genuine. The hard parts are freight and supply lead times, limited flight frequency, and building skilled teams in a smaller labor market, so we plan well ahead and buy locally wherever we can.
The outlook for the island is strong. Vanua Levu is the focus of Na Vualiku, a US$200 million World Bank tourism program that includes upgrading Savusavu Airport, and Savusavu now has a new international marina with superyacht berths. For the first time, the whole island is getting the investment it has always deserved.
5. What are Fiji’s competitive advantages, and what does the country still need?
Fiji is easy for Americans. There are nonstop flights from Los Angeles and San Francisco, English is spoken everywhere, and Fijian hospitality is the real thing. You can have reef, rainforest and village life in a single day, and Fiji welcomed a record of nearly a million visitors in 2025. What is still needed is more domestic air capacity to the outer islands, continued investment in hospitality training, and protection of the reefs and forests that bring people here. Na Vualiku addresses much of that for Vanua Levu.
6. How does Koro Sun support local communities?
Our guests snorkel and dive in the Waivunia Marine Park just off the resort, a Marine Protected Area run by the local Naivuatolu Community Cooperative. When our guests dive Waivunia, they’re supporting a reef the village itself protects. Our team is the heart of the guest experience, and we buy locally wherever we can, so the resort’s success is shared with the Savusavu community.
7. How do you protect the environment?
Much of our land remains intact virgin rainforest; we have built on only a small part of it. Our reef access is through a community-managed Marine Protected Area, and we grow produce in our own organic gardens. Our guests come for the rainforest and the reef, so protecting both is simply how we run the resort.
8. How are you adapting to what today’s travelers want?
Travelers don’t just want to look at a place anymore; they want to feel it. Outside magazine named our Rainforest Spa the World’s Best Outdoor Massage, and we were TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice winners in 2025 and 2026. Our experiences are built around nature: diving and snorkeling, kayaking, waterfall hikes, yoga in the rainforest and banana-leaf body wraps. We also have three restaurants: Palm Grove, Latitude 17 and the Sand Bar & Grill.
9. What role do U.S. and West Coast travelers play for Koro Sun?
My family is American, and Americans have been at the heart of Koro Sun since we opened. For Californians who’ve done Hawaii and want something less developed, Savusavu is the next step. It’s a nonstop flight from LAX to Nadi and a short hop to us. We work for both kinds of California traveler: families who want space and a place where kids are welcome everywhere, and couples who want an adults-only bure on the water.
10. What is your vision for the future, and what message do you have for Los Angeles Times readers?
Over the next decade, I see Savusavu becoming one of the South Pacific’s leading nature and wellness destinations. The airport upgrade, the new marina and the World Bank program are all pointing that way, and Koro Sun has the land and approved plans to grow with it. Fiji is closer than you think, and the Fiji you picture is still out there, about an hour past where most people stop. Come find it.
