IT’S important for the sustainability of Pacific tourism that we maintain our marketing and promotional presence with our European travel partners on selling our Pacific Island destinations.
These were the words of South Pacific Tourism Organisation’s (SPTO) marketing manager Alisi Lutu in a press release issued last week outlining SPTO’s latest tourism marketing initiative in the European market.
“This will help encourage the needed growth of visitor traffic and yields out of these long-haul markets into our Pacific island economies,” she said.
SPTO is creating greater tourism awareness in the South Pacific Islands region across Europe, through a series of marketing events over the next two months, the release said.
Meet the Pacific is a series of one-day business-to-business meetings that’s held across five European cities, namely Barcelona, Milan, Prague, Zurich and Manchester. It had started on February 22 and will end on March 6.
It creates the opportune platform for Pacific tourism suppliers to meet key European tour operators (buyers) who are committed to or interested in selling the South Pacific as a destination to their clients.
“Europe is the third largest tourist source market, representing about 10 per cent of all visitor arrivals to the Pacific Islands region, after Australia and New Zealand holding, a combined 50 per cent,” Ms Lutu said.
SPTO will also promote its online South Pacific Specialist program to train European travel agents on how to best market and sell the South Pacific to their clients.
SPTO chief executive officer Chris Cocker said: “Meet The Pacific is a great way for South Pacific tourism bodies and operators to meet key industry buyers in Europe in a short period of time, and maximise their resources with maximum impact for their particular destinations, product and service offerings.” said
SPTO is based in Suva and works with 16 Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste to market and develop tourism in the South Pacific region.
