Vanuatu tourism bounces back from difficulties

Transcript

Tourism leaders in Vanuatu say the industry is bouncing back from the hits taken by Cyclone Pam and concerns about the safety of its international runway.

Visitor numbers dropped 20 percent due to the cyclone 15 months ago, and another 20 percent after airlines pulled out of Vanuatu.

But the sector has received a boost with the resumption of Virgin Australia flights and the reopening of two key hotels, while a major marketing campaign is about to be launched.

Jo O'Brien has more

Interim repairs made to the runway have convinced Virgin Australia to return to Port Vila this week, four months after it cancelled flights to Bauerfield Airport. Airports Vanuatu Chairman and political advisor to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Utilities, Bakoa Kaltongga, admits the loss of flights from the Australian airline, and from Air New Zealand which also stopped flying to Vanuatu because of the runway, has hurt. But he says the tourism industry is rebounding.

BAKOA KALTONGGA: Since the flights from Air New Zealand stopped and Virgin stopped we have experienced a number of closures of small tourism businesses owned by expats and ni Vanuatu tourist operators have also suffered. But things are slowly turning around.

While Bakoa Kaltongga is welcoming the return of Virgin Australia, he says they need Air New Zealand to come back too and he hopes the government's decision to further upgrade the airport will ease some of its concerns.

But in a statement the New Zealand carrier says its position remains unchanged.

BAKOA KALTONGGA: Air New Zealand will only consider resuming services once a permanent solution for the runway has been funded, designed to a satisfactory standard and contracted to a competent contractor.

Air New Zealand hopes the proposed works to permanently resolve operational integrity concerns at Bauerfield will proceed, strengthening the prospect of a resumption of services later this year. The chairman of the Vanuatu Hotels and Resorts Association, Bryan Death, says it's disappointing Air New Zealand has yet to come to the party but he's hopeful the issue will be resolved.

BRYAN DEATH: It is, but we also know that the Vanuatu government is working on their agreement with the World Bank as we speak and Air New Zealand is just looking to see that the full resurfacing work planned within the next 12 months will be signed off.

Bryan Death says the return of Virgin Australia is a boost for the industry, and comes as the last major hotels to reopen following Cyclone Pam are back in business again.

The Holiday Inn Resort Vanuatu will be welcoming guests again from next week. Its manager Simon Douthett says it's been a difficult time as the hotel was forced to let go of most of its 160 workers while repairs were undertaken, but they were able to provide some relief to staff through a charity fund. He says they're now excited to be offering new services such as delivering room service to villas on the lagoon by traditional canoe.

SIMON DOUTHETT: We're working with the team on trying to create some new experiences because really we're about a destination, I mean Vanuatu in general is a memorable place and we are trying to make sure that we are too.

Vanuatu Hotels and Resorts Association Chairman Bryan Death says the Holiday Inn Resort and Iririki Island Resort and Spa are reopening just in time for the launch of a campaign to market Vanuatu as a destination.

BRYAN DEATH: From this coming Sunday we have TV ads will be appearing in New Zealand and on the Australian networks, so that's a fairly major push for Vanuatu. It's the first time, especially in Australia that we've moved into TV ads.

Bryan Death says new digital material on blogs and websites will also be a part of the marketing push.

He says Vanuatu has "come off the bottom" and the marketing campaign should help bring tourist numbers back up quickly.

This is Jo O'Brien