Transcript
MATUA SHANE JONES: It's important to bear in mind that New Zealand in its bilateral partnership with the Pacific island countries has placed increasingly a big accent on tourism for example the twenty odd million dollars Murray McCully as our minister allocated for the upgrade of Munda in the western provinces of Solomons is an indication of how important tourism is in relation to the economic development and New Zealand's foreign affairs slash aid approach to the Pacific. Obviously there are concerns. I think there's quite a lot of concern about the future and the quality of the Muri Lagoon, which is the draw card in many respects for ongoing Cook Islands tourism numbers. There's no point in boosting tourism numbers if the ability to cope with the effects of larger visitor numbers isn't well developed and then the environment suffers.
SELA JANE AHOLELEI: What are some success stories that highlight tourism as a strong economic driver in the Pacific?
MSJ: Well full marks to the Reddy group. The Reddy group are a Fijian Indian family business, significant investors in the Tanoa brand, ownership I should say of the Tanoa brand. Recently they put many millions of dollars into the upgrade of the Dateline Hotel in Nuku'alofa. If you want to boost tourism in places such as Tonga, the reality is you need to be able to meet various segments of the market. Obviously Samoa has attracted investment. Funnily enough it has come from the sovereign fund of PNG, of Papua New Guinea is now a key investor in lots of tourism assets largely hotels. Some in Fiji, some in Samoa and indeed in their own country. Last year when I attended a discussion about tourism, the key impediment I was told was how to upskill the workforce and one model that the... I think it was the Prime Minister of Samoa has that in his low period bring the workers of Aotearoa and then they go back in the high period back in the islands. So that's just a small example of we've bridged. We need to be a lot more innovative than we currently are.
SJA: One of the key attractions for tourists in the Pacific is its environmental features. Maintaining the environment though is actually not that easy…
MSJ: Yeah, look your point is exceedingly accurate. I was disturbed to read recently that the larger number of whale watchers and I guess whale swimmers. In Tonga, its actually having a negative effect on the actual behaviour of the whales so Tonga recently held a whale tourism conference a month ago and those are some practical ways where New Zealand can share its experiences.
SJA: Hosting a Pacific Futures Seminar with the focus on tourism and development in the Pacific, what do you hope people who attended the event take from this?
MSJ: The key outcome is a greater level of knowledge, but more importantly a better understanding as to what future interventions might be needed in partnership with MFAT and the local governments of the Pacific to ensure that tourism grows as an economic driver, but doesn't leave a degraded environment as a cost.
