Kia Orana Cook Islands – Our Trade Development Strategy
It is confirmed: after the second successful year, the Kia Orana Cook Islands Forum now takes its place as a key tool in the destinations tourism trade development strategy.
With increasing competition from other tourism regions and destinations, for visitors and their elusive tourism dollars, KOCI is a crucial element in ensuring the Cook Islands remains top of mind with our trade partners. There are many successful destination forums aimed at educating travel wholesalers and agents on destinations with the aim of introducing new product to their brochures – larger ones like POWOW for the USA, TRENZ for New Zealand, and ATE for Australia. Of course closer to home, there is TOKTOK in Vanuatu and BFTE in Fiji. These annual for a continue to operate successfully after decades of being a part of National Tourism Office activities and now the Cook Islands has taken its place on the world stage with its own event rather than simply attending as a secondary nation at BFTE.
KOCI is positioned as the signature event of the Corporations trade development strategy and is timed to round off a year of consolidated activities held in-market. The offices representing the Cook Islands in our key markets continue to run year round programmes targeting the education and motivation of our key sales partners in travel organisations worldwide. The programme elements include training, incentive prizes, cooperative initiatives, online activities, visitation programmes and consumer advertising.
The Forum is timed for December when the Cook Islands industry is better placed to accommodate and support the event. An undertaking of this magnitude is only successful with a strong industry partnering with the Corporation to deliver the best in product and services to our visitors. To be successful long term this partnership with industry must continue and strengthen even further.
Community also plays a strong part in the success of the event by ensuring that as usual our visitors are welcomed warmly in ‘te peu maori’.
The exposure to our experiences and our people by the delegates while in the Cook Islands is invaluable and allows our visitors to truly understand our destination and will give them the tools convert their clients to a Cook Islands Holiday.
In the coming weeks, discussions will be held to formulate future plans for KOCI with the launch of plans for KOCI2012 : 1-10 December, expected in March this year with a target of 150wholesalers!
The Corporation team are receiving welcome feedback from the public including industry and delegates and will utilise this information to bring about a bigger, better, brighter KOCI programme.

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