South Pacific Cruise Strategy
Cruising is booming. Global cruise passengers have exploded from less than 4 million in 1990 to over 11 million by 2005 – an almost threefold increase over 15 years. Cruise Lines International Association notes that a further 34 percent capacity increase is locked in until 2009 in terms of ships actually under construction. Talk of new mega-liners, carrying 4000 passengers, being unleashed into the Caribbean means that many of the current smaller ships working there will need to be redeployed. And what better place then the South Pacific. In the words of Japan’s Nippon Maru owners (Mitsui OSK) – “the South Pacific has an image of paradise and our cruisers want more of it.” So regional tourism organisation south-pacific.travel, with support from ProInvest, has drafted a cruise strategy for the region – see www.south-pacific.travel. Former Pacific Asia Travel Association VP Peter Semone led the strategy development. Semone has identified four Beacons to enable the South Pacific to capture its due share of the global cruise boom. south-pacific.travel Chief Executive Tony Everitt said “So where to now? Developing a Strategy is the easy part. Doing it is the hard bit. The next step is promoting the Strategy through forums like Cook Island’s Tourism Conference and Fiji’s own Cruise Conference, both this month. That process will help identify interested partners. south-pacific.travel is also looking at how to lead the marketing.” south-pacific.travel is a not-for-profit regional organisation charged with marketing and developing tourism. It has fifteen country members and over 200 financial private sector members, including the world’s largest cruise company – Carnival Cruises.

New Look tongaholiday.com Launched
The Tonga Visitors Bureau has launched its totally revamped web site www.tongaholiday.com The Director of the Tonga Visitors Bureau, Mr. Edgar Cocker, said the site has been reconstructed to be easily accessible, colorful, very inviting, rich with information, can be updated automatically, and user friendly.  It is a much more informative page, rich with promotional details that should assist TVB in its effort to promote Tonga as a lucrative destination. The site was redesigned by Pro System Designer Group a Tongan owned and operated company. Tongaholiday.com contains a great deal of detail information. Internet marketing is the most effective and less expensive method of marketing. It is fast, friendly and acceptable through out the world.  Internet has been with no doubt, and continues to be, the revolutionary force behind the transformation of the tourism industry – giving increasing power to the customer and putting growing pressure on suppliers and destination management organisations to face this challenge.  Much is going on in the technology arena and those trends can not be ignored. (Source: Tonga Ministry of Tourism Press Release 11 January 2007)

First South Pacific Tourism Internet Marketing Guide
Financial members of south-pacific.travel will from this week receive a copy of a guide on internet marketing specifically designed for tourism in the South Pacific. The 69 page guide, developed by our own ICT expert Peter Dawkins, is the only one of its kind. Membership of south-pacific.travel costs just FJD300 pa – contact rdrekeni@south-pacific.travel for more information.

More Cruise Ships Heading to the Solomon Islands
Eight cruise ships will be visiting Solomon Islands this year. Destination Solomons Travel and Tours Limited managing director Wilson Maelaua said these cruise ships are scheduled to visit the country at different times of the year. These ships include the Spirit of Oceanus, Silver Whisper, Orion, MS Statendam, Doulos, Spirit of Enderby and Clipper Odyssey. Mr Maelaua said some of these boats are scheduled to make two visits this year. The first ship Spirit of Oceanus will be arriving this month. According to the copy of the 2008 Cruise ship schedule provided by the Destination Solomons Limited, Spirit of Oceanus will arrive on January 17. Mr Maelaua said this ship will visit Isabel Province and Tikopia. The 89.8 metre length ship will be bringing 114 guests and 64 crews. It will depart on January 20. Mr Maelaua said the second ship Silver Whisper will arrive in the country on February 6. He said of all the ships scheduled to travel to Solomon Islands the biggest is MS Statendam. MS Statendam will be bringing 600 passengers and will be in the country on March 9. With these scheduled visits from tourists, Mr Maelaua urged Solomon Islanders especially Honiara residents to keep our city clean. “Let us all work together and make it our New Year’s resolution to make our city clean,” he said. He said the country’s tourism industry if developed properly would be the new hope for the future generation. (Source: Solomon Star News 09 January 2008)

Tourism Reps Given Special Roles
Experienced marketing officers at the Fiji Visitors Bureau have been assigned special responsibilities to promote and market tourism by working closely with stakeholders in the country. FVB director of marketing, Cherrill Watson said the Bureau is committed to promoting and marketing tourism by working closely with their partners throughout Fiji to ensure quality visitor experiences and a successful tourism industry. “The bureau is serious about spreading the benefits of tourism throughout the islands and has taken this to another level from January 1 this year with marketing officers been assigned regions in Fiji,” she said.  Ms Watson believes that increased consultation at regional level between FVB and tourism partners will help bridge the product gaps that exist and allow the industry to better capitalize on the expertise within the Bureau. “This is to match the right products with the right markets and provide regular source of intelligence which is critical in destination marketing,” adds Ms Watson. (Source: Fiji Sun News 11 January 2008)

Certificates for Agents as ‘South Pacific Specialist’
Since the launching of the 13 module e-learning training tool by south-pacific.travel in May 2007, many travel agents from different regions and countries have been doing the online training at there own pace. The www.south-pacific.travel/specialist training website is open to all interested agents who wish to enhance and increase their knowledge and sales argument of the South Pacific destinations. Since its launch, there has been a total of 68 participants that have started training from 9 different countries. So far a total of 21 agents are ready to obtain certification as ‘South Pacific Specialists” from south-pacific.travel. For more information about the online training program, please contact tooladministrator@spto.org

Exclusive GHS Island
On Friday 21st December in a lead up to Christmas a group of over 300 from GHS International celebrated early with a day trip planned to their very own exclusive luxury tropical island! South Sea Cruises own island, South Sea Island, was renamed and branded for the day as GHS Island. The jewel of an island, alive with activities, fringed with white sand beaches and set in azure waters was taken over as an exclusive charter for the day. Both ATS Pacific staff (the DMC running the programme) and South Sea Cruises staff were adorned in GHS logo printed sarongs and t-shirts, the ‘Yasawa Flyer’ vessel was re branded as the ‘GHS Flyer’ to whisk the group across in high speed comfort.  One of the 70 children proclaimed in surprise to her father on arrival “Dad! I didn’t know you owned an island as well!” before she skipped off to join in with the children’s programme that was created to entertain the young ones on the day and included activities such as basket weaving, treasure hunts, snorkel lessons and tours and semi submersible rides. Mums and dads took full advantage of the full range of activities on offer, the sumptuous gourmet seafood bbq buffet and massages on the beach. The guests reluctantly boarded the ‘Yasawa Flyer’ after such an entertaining and fun day, and in the time it took to eat their Magnums found they were back at Denarau Marina. (Source: South Sea Cruises)

Rock Star Morissette Visits Rabi (Fiji)
International rock star Alanis Morissette stole the hearts of locals when she charted a Savusavu-based cruise boat for a humanitarian tour of cyclone damaged islands in the northern division last week. Having slipped into the country unnoticed, Morissette impressed the workers of Tui Tai Adventure Cruises with her down to earth and caring nature. On January 4, she docked at Rabi to visit the islanders affected by Cyclone Daman. None of them knew who she was nor were they able to pronounce her name. Morissette is the best selling female rock artist in history, having sold 60 million albums worldwide and reaching critical universal acclaim with her 1995 album Jagged Little Pill. She was very down to earth and a caring person and she really loved Fiji. She said that right now Fiji was the best place she had visited, Tui Tai co-owner Morika Young said. On Rabi, she applauded the youths who put on a special show for her, telling in song and dance how their people came to Fiji. Morissette, who was joined by two friends, met each and every youngster, before handing out toys, clothes and medicine. She returned the next morning with five new wheelchairs, personally delivering them to handicapped islanders. She also briefly met with Rabi Island Council members before sailing back into Natewa Bay in Vanua Levu. (Source: Fiji Times 11 January 2008)