The high demand from buyers and sellers of the South Pacific Tourism Exchange (SPTE) in New Zealand last year has caused organisers to increase the participation by 30 places compared with 50 in this year’s event.
The inaugural event will target 80 international buyers to meet and network with 80 tourism operators.
The South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO), this year is targeting Australia tourism market as it is the main tourism source market for the Pacific region. With 160,048 Australian tourists visited the region in the third quarter of last year, SPTO Marketing manager Alisi Lutu said Fiji received nearly 63 per cent and Vanuatu 12 per cent on the market share.
“Fiji, Vanuatu and our other Pacific Island member countries are looking at SPTE as the major travel expo to provide them the much needed platform to grow their business out of Australia and New Zealand as well as the long haul markets of Europe, United Kingdom, the Americas and the emerging markets of China and India.”
The SPTE will be held at Melbourne, Australia, from June 19-20.
