Tourism

The newly released 'Samoa 2040' report focuses on four broad areas: tourism, agriculture and fishing, developing the digital economy and labour mobility.

The report says labour mobility opportunities can be grown, pointing out that Tonga had half Samoa's population but double the number of seasonal workers overseas.

“It provides a valuable source of income for Samoan workers and their families and their communities and offers an opportunity to gain new experiences and training which can then be reinvested into Samoa's development,” it said.

The coronavirus pandemic has devastated economies around the world but Fiji has been hit particularly hard by international travel bans.

Figures from June showed more than 100,000 people were no longer employed due to the tourism standstill.

Jessie McComb, a senior tourism expert with the International Finance Corporation, said tourism operators in Fiji are already preparing to welcome tourists back.

With 10 active cases and quarantine botch-ups, it could be months yet before Australian and Pacific visitors are allowed in.

Meanwhile, Australian Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham has warned its border will mostly likely be locked down until 2021.

That has businesses feeling nervous.

For Skyline - an adventure tourism business in Queenstown and Rotorua - the weekdays are the hardest.

Locals are visiting in the weekends and school holidays, but in between the luges and gondolas are quiet.

The tourism authority had taken measures to help prevent the spread of the virus, including cancelling all activities that required people to congregate, said Pativaine Petaia-Tevita.

The Tatau Festival parade was cancelled this morning on the waterfront. However, the exhibition and concert would go ahead over the next few days.

Visitors should make sure their measles vaccinations were up-to-date before arriving, while those already in the country and unsure of their vaccination status could visit a local clinic, she said.

The tourism minister, Salā Fata Pinati, called for the stay against at least eight companies.

He also proposed that the government pay $US7.6 million to help write off principal loan amounts owed to financial institutions.

It's not clear if cabinet will agree to the proposal.

Member countries are represented by their national tourism offices and these include Cook Islands Tourism Corporation, New Caledonia Tourism, Samoa Tourism Authority, Vanuatu Tourism and the Solomon Island Visitors Bureau.  Private sector participants are Turama Pacific, Air Caledonie International and Noumea Discovery Travel Company

In a statement, the Oxford Business Group said in mid-September, the government announced that Chinese tour groups travelling on trips sanctioned by PNG’s Tourism Promotion Authority (TPA) will be able to obtain visas on arrival, rather than having to apply months in advance, as had been the practice.

Fiji continues to be the top destination in the region.

Arrivals to the organisation's member countries provisionally reached over 460,000 in the March quarter of 2018.

The latest quarterly review reports visitors to the Asia and Pacific region were up 8.2 percent from 7.3 percent in the December quarter.

The latest figures outperformed last March's quarter by about 6 percent.

CEO Chris Cocker said Fiji continues to be the top destination with 36.7 percent of visitors followed by French Polynesia at 9.7 percent, Palau on 7.3 and PNG 7.2.

Christopher Cocker said culture was at the centre of what was on offer in the Pacific and a recent global meeting had emphasised the need for indigenous people to have more of a voice in the way tourism was planned and developed.

He said tourists to the region also needed to be encouraged to branch out when they travelled to the region to gain a more authentic experience of the diverse cultures they were visiting.

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.