Tourism Industry ponders $5 million draft strategy

Last Friday, members of the tourism industry were asked by the Tourism Council for feedback on a draft Destination Development Strategy which will link into government’s upcoming Budget Policy Statement due to be published at the end of March 2011 and which if approved, will cost $5 million in 2012.
The strategy is the offspring of the earlier “National Development Strategy” initially provided to Cabinet by the Tourism Corporation and Board to support government’s financial underpinning of the LA, Sydney and potentially Fiji flights on a long term basis.
Since then the Tourism Focus Group set up under the umbrella of government’s Economic Taskforce has further developed the strategy. Further input of tourism industry members will sharpen the strategy for the upcoming Economic Development Summit in April.
The Focus Group members are; John Tierney, Carmel Beattie, Metua Vaiimene, Te Tika Mataiapo Dorice Reid, Ewan Smith, Tata Crocombe, Liz Koteka, Donye Numa, Repeta Puna, Steve Anderson and Greg Stanaway.
The strategy’s vision is to grow demand for both leisure and event based tourism and support industry in growing visitor numbers, seasonal dispersal, and enhancing the economic value of an increasing average length of stay and the average spend of visitors.
The Cook Islands is targeting tourism growth of 50% over the next 3-5 years. Working hand in hand with airline access is the development of the Cook Islands as a sustainable and appealing tourism destination delivering long term economic value to the government and the community and the marketing of that experience to the potential visitor. These three elements reinforce each other - Increased air lift is supported by increased marketing is supported by increased and improved tourism infrastructure and together these will support and deliver positive growth.
Simultaneous activation of the elements of the destination development strategy, by way of focused and collaborative implementation by stakeholders and ministries underpins the success of this growth.
The strategy comes with a cost. Whether this cost is sufficient or not is not known.
It is envisaged that in 2012, the cost to implement the strategy will be in the region of $5 million.
The aim is to bump visitor arrivals up from around 104,000 to 113,000 in 2012.
The industry will be looking to increase visitor spending by another $68.2 million and increasing the length of stay to an average of 8 days and boosting the tax take by another $8.08 million.
Of immediate interest are;
(1) plans to support the overall enhancement of the visitor experience on Rarotonga with cycle ways and walkways, hiking trails to NZ DOC standards at a cost of $1.5 million.
(2) To support the overall development of Aitutaki as a second destination by upgrading its key natural attractions and public facilities including; Upgrading of public facilities including renovations and repairs to the wharf and surrounding CBD area of Aitutaki at a cost of $825,000.
(3) To support Atiu as a viable third destination through enhancing the overall attractiveness of Atiu by upgrading its key natural attractions and public facilities at a cost of $350,000.
There are other strategies which include the other outer islands.
There is also a broad based strategy to support the overall development of the Cook Islands as an attractive visitor destination through programmes and projects which include planning and research, event development, cuisine development, education, and environment. This strategy is expected to cost $1.4 million.

By Charles Pitt

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