China Reponds To SPTO's Membership Drive

In session...the SPTO Council of Ministers meeting in Rarotonga.

China has become the first donor country to take up the invitation to become a member of the regional tourism body, the South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO). In taking that decision, tourism ministers at their meeting in Rarotonga last month also extended an invitation to Taiwan to become a member.

Ministers who argued for Taiwan's inclusion said the gesture ought to be made to Taipei given SPTO's non-political affiliation status. The ministers, some nine of them, with Vanuatu, Niue and American Samoa unrepresented, met behind closed doors at the scenic surrounds of the conference room of the Rarotongan Beach Resort & Spa.

Sources say the push for Taiwan's inclusion came from pro-Taipei supporters in the region‹Solomon Islands, particularly.

News of the ministers' decision is slowly reaching the islands, but the Beijing's reaction won't be difficult to predict.

As it is, China has had to go out of its way occasionally to remind countries like Papua New Guinea and Fiji over its insistence of a one-China policy, that islands countries can only expect a good listening ear from Beijing (not to mention a bulky cheque book too) as long as they recognise China, and not Taiwan.

Not helping one bit either was a news dispatch from Honiara soon after the ministers' meeting in the Cook Islands that said Taiwan's membership of SPTO has been endorsed.

Getting China's endorsement to become a SPTO member was part of the tourism organisation's business plan for 2004-2005, which the ministers approved at the Rarotonga meeting.

With European Union funding restricted to selected projects of SPTO only, the Suva-based organisation has come up with a plan that seeks to widen its funding base through:

• Membership fees from countries and private operators in the region;
• Donor agencies; and
• Commercial activities on a user-pay basis.

Already, the need for SPTO to be a leaner and meaner organisation has seen a dramatic reduction in the number staff from about 20 in 2001 to 10 in 2003. Membership of the private sector has also shot up from 32 in July this year to 65 by last month. A revised commercial package of benefits has been attributed for this, which included banner advertising and a full page on the SPTO website, access to research and market intelligence and the use of the SPTO logo.

Also approved by the ministers is the SPTO's regional tourism strategy. Revealed initially at a stakeholders workshop four days before the ministers' meeting, the document made the point that the region receives up to one million visitors annually‹a mere 0.15 percent of world tourism. Identified as marketing initiatives are:

• Intelligence report to be produced by SPTO for national tourism organisations (NTO) in the region on issues like backpackers, cruise ships and eco-tourism.
• Crisis management initiatives for use by NTOs. The regional tourism strategy also identified some development initiatives like:
• The formation of a regional eco-tourism association.
• Need for a regional support fund.
• Completion of a best strategy for cruise ships.

The ministers' meeting was convened a day after SPTO held its 4th biennial conference on the theme ŒSouth Pacific‹Celebrate Our Difference.' That there were indeed differences on how the region ought to market itself was there for all to see when the subject of a South Pacific brand was introduced.

While delegates like the chief executive of Cook Islands Tourism Corporation, Chris Wong would like a common brand for the region when marketing in long-haul destinations like the United States and Europe especially, there were others who were not as enthusiastic.

"While there was confirmation of continued support for the existing South Pacific brand and the advantages it offered in long-haul destination marketing, some members continued to support individual country brands," the conference communique noted.

The difficulties of finding a common ground for marketing the South Pacific, given the diversity of the region were highlighted as constraints to be addressed.

Delegates were made to realise the powerful impact of a common brand in a presentation by Wally Stone, chairman of Tourism New Zealand who spoke of his country's success with its 100% pure marketing brand. Although not mentioned in the communique, a few delegates did draw comparison to Stone's NZ$55 million marketing budget per annum to SPTO's $500,000.

Future aviation trends were the focus of Roger Poulton's presentation, who is Air New Zealand's Vice President for New Zealand and the Pacific. He spoke of the airline's proposed alliance with QANTAS, a development that has been rejected by commerce commissions in both New Zealand and Australia. Poulton revealed the airline's new focus which would be heavy on customer service in giving what the customer wants and not what the company thinks the customer should want and e-commerce including the use of online booking.

Other speakers at the conference included Mike Tamaki who has become a familiar face in regional tourism conferences for his award winning Tamaki Maori Village concept in Rotorua, and a joint presentation by Radike Qereqeretabua, managing director of Shangri-la's Fijian Resort and Dr Austin Bowden-Kerby, a marine scientist with the Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific in Suva. They spoke on the project to protect the fragile ecosystem around the Shangri-la's Fijian Resort in western Fiji.