SPTO

The comments were made by the new Council Chairman and Minister for Social Services of Niue, Billy Graham Talagi at the opening of the meeting Thursday October 3rd, which brought to an end a week of regional tourism meetings in Niue.

Moreover, Minister Talagi also acknowledged the China Pacific Islands Tourism Year 2019, which has been a valuable opportunity to better understand China and vice versa.

Of this, air arrivals were 2.14 million in 2018, 1.6% above 2017 while sea arrivals, mainly cruise (day visitors) were 1.02 million,” said SPTO Chief Executive Officer, Chris Cocker.

These figures were released by the South Pacific Tourism Organisation in its 2018 Annual Visitor Arrivals Report.

The Report also noted that Pacific tourism receipts or visitor spending in destinations contributed US$3.8 billion or 11.1% to the region’s GDP and generated 131,010 jobs placing the tourism sector as a key driver of economic growth and employment creation for the Pacific Islands.

The SPTE is the largest annual Business to Business tourism event organized by the South Pacific Organisation for the Pacific islands. It is a platform for sellers, which facilitates collaboration between tourism service providers, national tourism offices of SPTO member countries and international buyers including travel agents and tour operators from around the world.

Mr Vaeafe is executive director of the American Samoa Visitors Bureau.

He replaces Papali'i Matatamalii Sonia Hunter of Samoa.

Felicity Bollen from Niue is the new deputy chair.

The announcements were made this week at the South Pacific Tourism Exchange (SPTE) event in Auckland.

SPTO members include American Samoa, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu Wallis & Futuna and China.

The roadshow is held prior to the 2018 ITB Berlin tradeshow, the largest travel trade show in Europe.

‘Meet the Pacific’ is a one-day business-to-business meeting through pre-scheduled appointments in six European and two Asian countries bringing together resort partners, tourism board and airline partners (sellers) from the South Pacific to meet key European, UK and Asian tour operators (buyers) who are committed to promoting and selling the South Pacific destinations. 

At a meeting between the SPTO and SIS members convened in Port Vila, Vanuatu, the countries agreed on a number of priorities including tourism marketing, capacity building, cruise tourism development, air and sea links and tourism investment, to name a few. These priorities have been identified as crucial areas requiring development and funding support and the SPTO has been urged to explore news to support and collaborate with its SIS members which face unique vulnerabilities due to their remote location.