Pac Travel
Vanuatu Guns For More Japanese Visitors
And it's after more Aussies in a big way
Vanuatu hopes that a third weekly Nadi/Tokyo service to be opened by Air Pacific from April will also open an era of a steady flow of Japanese tourists to it, according to Linda Kalpoi, head of Vanuatu's National Tourist Office.
She's also envisaged access to Vanuatu for Japanese visitors flown to New Caledonia by Aircalin's developing Japanese service.
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Last year only about 900 of Vanuatu's 57,000 visitors were Japanese. About 80 percent of the country¹s visitors are derived from Australia and the balance are mainly New Zealanders, delivered in each case by a Boeing 737 jet operated by the national airline, Air Vanuatu.
Since the Melanesian archipelago of 80 islands lies off the main airline trunk routes, it has to rely on a trickle of visitors of other nationalities who dogleg to Port Vila via Nadi, Fiji, New Caledonia and Australia.
A third Narita Airport slot available to Air Pacific, the Fiji national carrier, from April, offers opportunities for a combination of holiday packages Air Pacific wasn't able to sell before and which are expected to stimulate a surge of new business into Fiji.
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Kalpoi told Pacific Magazine that discussions in Tokyo between the Vanuatu industry and the Japan Travel Bureau brought out serious Japanese interest in directing business to Vanuatu by Air Pacific via Nadi.
She understood that Air Vanuatu was looking at increasing the frequency of its Port Vila/Nadi service from once to twice-weekly to connect with the Tokyo service.
At a later stage it hopes to also piggy-back on Air Pacific's Nadi/Los Angeles flights to build up a flow of American business, she said. Vanuatu's heavy reliance on the Australian market has cost it some loss of market share due to the convoluted airline situation in Australia, following the collapse of one of the major domestic carriers there, Ansett, and hot competition from Fiji, which hit Australians with a barrage of cheap holiday package offers in a strategy to recover lost business because of the country's 2000 political trouble.
"We've had a drop of about four percent, mainly because of very intensive competition from Fiji," Kalpoi said. "We are maintaining our New Zealand market. But we need to be more aggressive there."
More aggression is the nature of the Vanuatu's tourism authority's promotional drive in Australia this year. It includes a television campaign in conjunction with Air Vanuatu and hotel resorts, more visibility in newspapers and niche magazine advertising, and a lot more familiarisation trips for Australian travel agents and travel writers.
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"We are going more for the singles, couples and soft adventure markets. There is a lot to do in Vanuatu."
Vanuatu's portfolio of hotel accommodation has risen in recent times to about a thousand rooms. A boutique hotel, the 20-room Chantilly's on the Bay, opened in Port Vila in March, while an eight-floor hotel of about 80-90 rooms constructed on the Port Vila waterfront by a local developer, is expected to be taken over for management by overseas interests.
Kalpoi said the recent completion of the upgrading to Boeing 737 standard of the airport at Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu's largest island and the location of some of the finest untouched beaches in the South Pacific, has aroused the interest of resort developers. Several small resorts are well established there.
The international airport at Port Vila became operational for aircraft in the 250-seat Boeing 757 class from the beginning of this year. But it is unlikely that any airline will use such equipment for a Vanuatu service for some years to come.
Asia investors are reportedly having discussions with the government about a proposal for a 200-room resort at Malapoa Point, Port Vila, a location eyed previously without results by numerous other operators. Developer Susie Barnes said that in May the first stage of five villas for a 15-villa exclusive resort, off the north east coast of Efate, where Port Vila is located, is due to open.
