Solomons tourism welcomes proposed WWII park

Transcript

The chief executive of the Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau has welcomed a government proposal to develop a WWII memorial park at Bloody Ridge on Guadalcanal.

The Solomon Islands prime minister made the commitment last week to complete the construction of a WWII memorial park at Bloody Ridge in time for next year's 75th anniversary of the landing of allied forces on Guadalcanal.

Josefa Tuamotu says the SIVB will do everything to support the government's plans to develop the park as it will give added value to the already impressive WWII historical sites already available in the country.

JOSEFA TUAMOTU: I think for us it is more to do with just supporting whatever they are doing in terms of that because this country needs that support. And more importantly for the people to understand the country's contribution during that particular time. So you know we contributed quite a lot with our people and supporting the American team so for us I think it is very important to support that initiative.

KOROI HAWKINS:  And how much of Solomon's tourism or how much does World War II tourism contribute to Solomon's tourism?

JT: World War II is quite a significant element particularly from the US. We have groups that do come in from the US on a monthly basis, basically those that have, it is almost like intergenerational travel. So people will come, their parents fought here or their great grandparents fought here. So they do come and visit the sites so for us it is an important market that we cannot ignore.

KH: Yes and you have the US war memorial, the Japanese war memorial and the coast watchers, this is going to be something like a park is it? Or is it going to be just a similar memorial to those ones, do you know?

JT: Well my understanding, look I will be honest with you I just don't know the actual details but all I know is that it is almost going to be almost like a memorial that they are going to set a certain site. To protect the site, because some of the sites are being sort of taken over by people. So I think that is what they want to do to protect that and maintain it for you know in perpetuity.

KH: In regards to the 75th anniversary maybe coming up next year is that an important date on your calendar?

JT: You know it is absolutely because we are gearing up for that and we are hoping to get in more visitors particularly out of the US who are very very aware of the situation here. So we are sending a group of operators to go up and market in the US market later this year. Hopefully that will work to support that particular project.

The Battle of Bloody Ridge, also known as the Battle of Edison's Ridge, took place in September 1942 and was a major loss for the Japanese forces.

It is seen as a turning point in the war in the South Pacific.