NEWLY crowned Miss Pacific Islands 2016 Anne Dunn was hosted to a luncheon at the South Pacific Tourism Organisation office in Suva yesterday.
SPTO chief executive officer Chris Cocker and his team welcomed and hosted Miss Dunn, also Miss Fiji 2016, who was last week crowned the overall winner at the 30th Miss Pacific Islands Pageant in Apia, Samoa.
“National and regional pageants give recognition to young Pacific Island women and their contributions to regional affairs across diverse fields,” Mr Cocker said.
“Events such as Miss Pacific Islands uniquely promote the region and its holiday destinations as well as encourage the Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) market. The Pacific’s tourism assets are its people, environment and culture; and pageants serve as a unique platform to celebrate these assets,” Mr Cocker said.
The Samoan Government, which had established and hosted the Pacific’s first ever pageant 30 years ago, hosted the weeklong pageant with Samoa Tourism Authority (STA) serving as the event’s secretariat.
After being established as the Miss South Pacific Islands Pageant in 1987, the pageant was officially renamed and re-launched in 2014 as the ‘Miss Pacific Islands Pageant’ in order to reflect participation from the broader Pacific region.
Eight Pacific Island queens from American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Samoa competed in this year’s event.
“Miss Pacific Islands would be a great addition to our tourism promotion initiatives in 2017 and we are definitely keen to explore these opportunities with Anne, whilst working within her priorities for next year,” SPTO’s marketing manager Alisi Lutu said.
