Cover Story
TOURISM 10
Companies Redefining The Pacific Visitor Industry
Everyone wants to be a player in Pacific tourism. Every country has its visitor authority, hotel association and marketing plan. But the reality is that, for all of the region’s international cache as a place of beauty and tranquility, few island groups are truly contenders in global tourism.
In mass market tourism, only Guam (1.3 million visitors), Fiji (est. 530,000) and French Polynesia (est. 220,000) are “big” players. Saipan is in that league, and expects 412,500 visitors this year. But that figure represents a 22 percent drop from last year and the island’s visitor industry is in a free fall. All of these “big” markets are dwarfed, of course, by Hawaii’s more than seven million annual visitor arrivals. The Pacific’s second-tier markets—Palau, Vanuatu, Samoa, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea and the Cook Islands—see annual visitor arrivals in the 60,000 to 95,000 range.
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These companies run the gamut from community-based efforts to train artisans and craftsmen, to sophisticated fashion design operations, to consistently high quality dive tour operators. Of particular interest: an American Samoa family-run enterprise, low on resources but high on enthusiasm and creativity, that replicates a Samoan village for visitors keen on learning more about that rich culture and its people.
If there is a theme that connects all of this year’s Tourism 10 firms, it is the ability to mix creativity and local resources to produce world-class visitor experiences. We find these companies’ stories compelling because they can be, with a few exceptions, replicated in most Pacific markets. They require drive, vision and the ability to consistently execute at a high level of quality. But they are being developed by local entrepreneurs, not major international visitor industry brands.
Finally, we think this year’s Tourism 10 also provides valuable lessons for the biggest and most financially successful Pacific. The most important lesson, in our estimation, is the level of “authenticity” that these experiences provide. That’s the Pacific’s real competitive advantage—a level of cultural authenticity that is missing in many visitor experiences in other parts of the world. Indeed, authenticity makes a virtue of the reality that most Pacific Islands destinations don’t have miles of high-rise hotels lining white sand beaches and turquoise lagoons. But what we do have is priceless.
Rarotonga, Cook Islands
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| Ellena Tavioni-Pittman flanked by models wearing TAV designs. [photo: Courtesy Noeline Brown of Cook Islands News] |
Many tourists to Rarotonga no sooner alight from their planes then seek out locations where they can buy TAV-designed shirts and dresses. A TAV-designed outfit to the Cook Islands is what tapa prints are to Fiji and Tonga or dot paintings are to the Aborigines of Australia.
Ellena Tavioni-Pittman is the name and face behind TAV designs and over the years she has refined her designs and prints around the vibrant and colorful culture of the Cook Islands. Tourists provide her with an important market, but also great marketing, as they often return home with her outfits to mark their visits to the Cook Islands.
Tavioni-Pittman’s great eye for designs and motifs runs in the talented Tavioni family. Her uncle Mike Tavioni is a well-known master carver and a prominent name in the annual canoe festival in Hawaii.
Born and raised in her island home of Atiu, north of Rarotonga, Tavioni-Pittman also has plans to invest in a multi-million dollar tourism resort. The Cook Islands Business & Professional Women’s Association crowned her the Cook Islands Woman of the Year for 2005.
“My papa taught me to work hard for anything I wanted, never steal, be kind to others and the list goes on. He was an excellent motivator and told me when I was only a little girl way back in the late 1960s that times had changed and career opportunities for women were no longer limited,” Tavioni-Pittman said after her win.
This year she will be back on stage at the New Zealand Fashion Week with her homegrown models to reveal her new season’s collection. Tel: (682) 23-202. Fax: (682) 25-202. tav@oyster.net.ck
- Ulamila Kurai-Marrie
Suva, Fiji
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| The serene entrance to the Pure Fiji Spa belies its location in industrial Suva. [photo: Courtesy Pure Fiji] |
When Britain’s Princess Anne visited the Pure Fiji factory and spa in Suva in July, she didn’t exactly put her feet up for a facial or body scrub. But the visit is another endorsement of the success being experienced by Gaetane Austin and her company, manufacturers of coconut oil-based beauty products.
Just over a year ago Pure Fiji also opened a beauty spa on site. It’s a seemingly incongruous location, in the light-industrial area of Vatuwaqa, Suva, but once you enter the spa you are truly in an oasis of peace and calm. Spa facilities and programs are an important segment of the tourism and hospitality industries internationally and in Fiji.
The Pure Fiji Spa hosts locals and savvy visitors looking for a bit of indulgence in the commercial, swarming and frenetic Fijian capital. But more importantly, it serves a valuable function for the tourism industry more broadly by offering training for spa technicians using the company’s products.
“At the moment we have a qualified expert in nail technology, massage and facials on attachment to Pure Fiji for several months,” Austin says. “We are sending her to the resorts which stock Pure Fiji products, and will also be conducting training sessions for outer island and smaller resorts in our spa. We strongly believe that the spa industry in Fiji needs to be of a high standard to compete with Asia and Southeast Asia, which are very polished spa destinations.”
To book a treatment at the Pure Fiji Spa phone: (679)-338-3611. www.purefiji.com
- Samantha Magick
Apia, Samoa
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| Penehuro Papali’i is the founder, director and studio artist at Beautiful Expressions Of Nature. [photo: Samantha Magick] |
To enter the studio and gallery of Beautiful Expressions Of Nature in Samoa is to be enveloped in a riot of color. Murals painted on corrugated iron and plyboard hint at what lies within. Once you navigate the entrance you are met with mats painted with intricate figures, a series of large wooden sculptures, the smell of wood shavings and the tap-tapping sound of glass being broken and then rearranged into intricate stained glass windows.
Beautiful Expressions Of Nature (BEN) was established in 1997 as a small studio by artist Penehuro Papali’i, before he turned it into a fully-fledged school for young men in 2000. When we visited he had 20 full time students, all of them working with impressive concentration.
A visit to the BEN studio in Lelata, Apia offers an experience unlike any other in Samoa, or indeed, elsewhere in the region.
Hailing from Savaii, Papali’i says, “I was not spoiled by skyscrapers around me, so since my life is there with nature, all my work and school is trying to maintain the shapes and work closely with nature, it’s a kind of recycling.” A second theme is Samoan legends, which feature in almost everything piece of art, regardless of the medium or scale. “There’s a big future for young people of Samoa when they learn how to do art, because there are plenty of resources here,” says Papali’i. “They try to go to New Zealand, thinking there is a big future there. Of course there are jobs, but I tell you when you’ve got a knowledge and experience of something you can live happily here, no matter how much money you have, you enjoy your creative gain.”
BEN welcomes visitors and support. Phone (685) 24-780 to arrange a time to visit.
- Samantha Magick
Huahine, French Polynesia
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| The structure may be a tent, but the interior of the guest rooms at Fare Ie are posh and welcoming. [photo: www.pacific-pictures.com] |
Polynesian couple, Nadia and Fabrice Fourmanoir, have created the first South Pacific resort to offer accommodation in luxurious safari tents similar to those used in the wildlife parks of East Africa. Fare Ie began in 2005 with two spacious canvas cottages on a beach near Fare on the northwest side of Huahine.
A year later, four more units were erected at Parea, near Marae Anini in the southeast corner of the island. Instead of constructing concrete structures with energy-hungry air-conditioners, Nadia and Fabrice have used airy tents with hardwood floors, private bathrooms, queen-sized beds with mosquito netting, teak furniture, and high ceilings. In the true Polynesian fashion, a separate thatched kitchen shelter comes with each unit, and all necessary utensils and provisions needed to cook a full “American” breakfast are included in the price.
Airport transfers, bicycles, kayaks, and snorkeling gear are also provided at no extra cost. Rates at Fare Ie begin around 15,000 Pacific francs (US$160) double, or 24,500 francs (US$260) for one of the two extra large grand beach cottages at Parea. Guests can opt for a package which includes a rental car at 4,500 francs (US$50) a day — much less expensive than renting a car separately.
The idea is to make the ecological footprint as light as possible through the use of non-permanent structures and non-motorized nautical gear. In Kenya, the national park authorities have halted the construction of permanent hilltop hotels, which have been shown to influence animal behavior and cause overcrowding. Future Kenyan safari camps will resemble Fare Ie. Although no such requirements exist anywhere in the Pacific, this small French Polynesian pension shows that there are alternatives to the high-impact mega-resorts. Fare Ie offers its guests a unique experience, which is sure to be imitated. www.tahitisafari.com
- David Stanley
Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia
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| Pro surfer Matt Archbold charging into Pohnpei’s perfect tubes. [photo: Courtesy Pohnpei Surf Club] |
Pohnpei’s photogenic waves and the avid surfers drawn to them have been featured in more than 20 magazine articles (including Pacific Magazine), television shows and other media in the last two years. It is this carefully cultivated publicity that is fueling the growing success of the Pohnpei Surf Club, FSM’s sole and relatively new surf tourism outfit.
Since October 2004 nearly 300 surfers have overcome the drawbacks of Pohnpei’s remote location and the costs associated with reaching the island, to sample the fare.
Currently, about 80 percent of PSC’s guests arrive from Australia, 15 percent from Hawaii and the U.S. mainland and the rest from Japan, South America and Europe.
“Marketing is pretty strategic for us,” says Allois Malfitani, co-owner and operator of PSC along with business partner Chris Groark. In addition to attracting visitors via Pohnpei’s generous offering of surf, PSC also promotes other activities for guests, including fishing, skin diving and is pushing kite surfing. Pohnpei’s surf season runs only seven months of the year.
As popular as PSC has become, its future is uncertain. The Pohnpei State Legislature is proposing changes to foreign investment laws that could stifle the future of PSC. Malfitani, who is Brazilian-American, was turned down in July for a new project, an eco-resort.
The expense of transporting surfboards to the island also poses a hurdle. Continental Micronesia, the region’s only airline, charges $100 one-way for two boards and $300 for each additional one. Surfers typically travel with five. The airline also occasionally imposes embargos on surfboards. Malfitani is undaunted. “This is the right time,” he says. “Micronesia is getting closer to the world.” http://www.pohnpeisurfclub.com/
- Jessica Chapman
Majuro, Marshall Islands
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| Serendipper Resort has a gazebo where one can nap or contemplate a less hurried world. [photo: Floyd K. Takeuchi] |
From a modest start 10 years ago as a hired divemaster with a local tour operator, Satoshi Yoshii has become arguably the leading tourism promoter in the Marshall Islands. For Yoshii, originally from Japan, environmentally-friendly, sustainable tourism development isn’t just rhetoric. He’s delivering the entire package, as well as expanding the horizon for what’s possible in this distant island destination.
Want an island to yourself? He’s got one in Majuro, known as “Serendipper Resort,” replete with spectacular sunsets, a classy bungalow powered by the sun, composting toilet, and biodegradable slippers and drinking straws. Want to dive as a large group? He’ll take you out on a liveaboard vessel to several atolls nearby Majuro reachable only by boat. Want to go “isolated?” He’s just completing four bungalows on Rongelap Atoll, with dive and eco-tour options on neighboring Ailingnae Atoll, which is in line to be nominated as a World Heritage site for its pristine environment.
Then there’s his non-profit Marshalls Oceanic Institute, established to head recycling and conservation programs. One of Majuro’s biggest tourism challenges is the eyesore of solid waste. Yoshii says the Oceanic Institute will soon set up recycling equipment to reduce imported plastic bottles to fuel that can be mixed with coconut oil for his (and other) outboard engines and generators that now rely on diesel that costs more than $4 a gallon.
Says Yoshii: “Through the experience of staying at Serendipper, visitors can learn and take home (conservation) ideas with them. But it’s not only for tourists. This is a good model for how to develop (the Marshall Islands) as a tourist destination.”
Yoshii has also been a driving force behind the effort to see Japan Airlines start direct Tokyo-Majuro charter flights later this year. In his vision, the hook that makes the Marshall Islands a unique destination for Japanese is that “we can promote the entire country as eco-friendly,” Yoshii says. “But we need to develop sustainably so we don’t lose the main resource (to attract tourists).” http://majuro.jp/sir/index.html
- Giff Johnson
Noumea, New Caledonia
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| Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center [photo: David Stanley] |
The Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center on the Tina Peninsula, 12 kilometers northeast of New Caledonia’s capital Noumea, is exceptional in every respect. Designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, it was built by French contractors between 1994 and 1998 at a cost of over US$50 million. The center opened on May 4, 1998, the 10th anniversary of the assassination of the Kanak leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou at Ouvea in the Loyalty Islands.
A contemporary art gallery, temporary and permanent exhibitions of Kanak and other Pacific art, a library, an audiovisual room, indoor and outdoor theaters, a spectacular botanical garden and a large ceremonial area are only some of the center’s outstanding features.
Yet the Tjibaou Cultural Center presents Kanak culture as a regional folklore rather than a national tradition. Events such as the Ouvea Massacre of 19 Kanaks by French troops exactly one year prior to the murder of Tjibaou and many other atrocities during “the events” of the 1980s are barely mentioned here. A room in Village Three provides photos and texts on the life of Jean-Marie Tjibaou, but there’s no explanation as to why he was killed or the background of his assassin.
Perhaps the most amazing feature of the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center is a three-meter-high bronze statue of Tjibaou himself, clad in a Roman toga, on a hill overlooking the center. In death, Jean-Marie Tjibaou has become a symbol of continuing French colonial rule. The Matignon Accords, which he signed shortly before his death, were intended to be a brief pause on the road to independence.
However, his assassination by a Kanak activist who believed he had sold out to the French authorities has frozen the Accords into a permanent situation. For the traveler aware of these things, the exhibits at the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center take on a second meaning, making it one of the most fascinating places to visit in New Caledonia. http://www.adck.nc/
- David Stanley*
* (David Stanley is the author of Moon Handbooks South Pacific. His online guides and blog can be found at: www.southpacific.org)
SAM'S TOURS
Koror, Palau
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| Visitors can get around Palau’s famous Rock Islands on Sam’s Tours’ kayaks. [photo: Kevin Davidson] |
Palau is one of the world’s most famous diving spots, with good reason. Its well-deserved reputation as a “must dive destination” is because of its sheer natural beauty, and the pioneering work of tourism operator Sam Scott.
Scott, originally from the United States, has been in Palau since 1982. He arrived at age 20, when he joined his stepfather who had become the Ibedul, one of Palau’s two paramount chiefs. That connection helped to give Scott an intimate knowledge of Palau and its people. However, despite the high-powered connection, Scott built Sam’s Tours’ reputation on his hard work, and that of his well-regarded staff.
Scott founded Sam’s Tours in 1990 and remains actively involved in the operations. Sam’s Tours offers daily dive tours and live aboard diving, as well as sport fishing, Blue Planet kayaking tours, overnight beach camps, snorkeling and boat trips through the spectacular Rock Islands, visits to the historic Peleliu ruins, jungle walks, waterskiing and wakeboarding,
Sam’s Tours is a leader in Palau’s competitive dive market because of its attention to detail, and above-and-beyond willingness to customize trips to the interests of visitors. The company can arrange everything from camping permits to maps and transportation.
Scott is also an active environmentalist, sponsoring the Palau Conservation Society as well as other conservation efforts in the islands. This role may be his most important, as Palau attempts to balance tourism and other industries with protection of the natural beauty that makes it unique. www.samstours.com
- Samantha Magick and Floyd K. Takeuchi
Tutuila, American Samoa
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| Sina Vaivai is the welcoming face of Loto’s Soifuaga Samoan Village, a family run experience in American Samoa. [photo: Samantha Magick] |
American Samoa’s nascent tourism industry has a new attraction. It offers a tremendous experience for people wanting a taste—literally and figuratively—of Samoan village life. The eloquent Sina Vaivai is the face of Loto’s Soifuaga Samoan Village, although she’s quick to say that the driving force for the enterprise is her parents, Vili and Vila Loto.
The family enterprise has been open to visitors for six months, but the Loto clan has been developing the concept for over a year. It is funded entirely from their savings.
Sina was a former missionary to the Philippines, and then a local tour guide running programs themed “A Taste of Village Life.” But she says the tour didn’t offer an authentic experience, simply an umu at a resort, and the family thought it could do better.
On arriving at the Samoan Village, you are welcomed by the family, who then take you on a gentle walk, to visit the sleeping fale, see women weaving and gossiping (perhaps not in that priority, Sina says), watch the preparation of, and then drink cocoa, see younger family members prepare coconut milk—from climbing the tree to the final squeezing—all in record time, before sitting down to an absolute feast.
“If the food is not good you may as well forget about the rest,” says Sina, a sentiment with which all Pacific Islanders would concur. They certainly get it right at The Samoan Village.
Loto’s Soifuaga Samoan Village is a work in progress, with the family continually improving landscaping and activities. But it is also a fine model for other parts of the Pacific. Arrange a visit to the Samoan Village through Betty Cavanaugh at Pago Pago Tradewinds Tours & Rentals at (684) 688-7722. pagopagotradewindstours@yahoo.com
- Samantha Magick
Yap, Federated States Of Micronesia
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| Yap Divers’ Bill Acker points out colorful corals in the waters surrounding Yap. [photo: Tim Rock] |
When you open a dive shop and then a hotel on a small, remote and traditional island in an equally remote part of the world, how do you let people know? That was Bill Acker’s challenge 20 years ago when he took a few tanks and a small boat and started Yap Divers. Today, virtually everyone in the diving world knows about Yap’s amazing family of manta rays. And Acker’s Manta Ray Bay Hotel is one of diving’s model facilities.
Acker, who came to Yap as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1976, knew he had an amazing place. So he organized visits from top magazines and journalists. One was Paul Tzimoulis, Hall of Fame dive pioneer and publisher of Skin Diver Magazine.
One day, Acker innocently asked Tzimoulis if he wanted to see manta rays, knowing fishermen saw them frequently in a certain island channel. Acker did not know seeing a manta was a special event. Tzimoulis went crazy.
They made five dives that day alone. Shortly afterwards, mantas were on the cover of the magazine. Almost overnight, Yap was a must-see destination. Acker developed the manta dives and the publicity put Yap (and the rest of Micronesia) on the diving map.
Acker is constantly improving the diving and accommodation facilities. The hotel has added an Indonesian phinisi sailing ship that has a pub and restaurant with five-star chef. A huge dive shop, pool with waterfalls, a brewery (the main beer is Manta Gold), expanded boat fleet and other amenities highlight his once humble hotel.
A key to the success of Yap Divers is protecting the natural environment. Acker has set rules of engagement to make sure that the mantas and the reefs are not disturbed in their ocean environment. This ensures that the region’s greatest attraction, the manta schools, will thrive for years to come. www.mantaray.com
- Tim Rock
