SPTO is currently participating in the 4th ‘Meet the Pacific’ roadshow held across Europe, UK and will continue on to the Asia region in the coming week.
The roadshow is held prior to the 2018 ITB Berlin tradeshow, the largest travel trade show in Europe.
‘Meet the Pacific’ is a one-day business-to-business meeting through pre-scheduled appointments in six European and two Asian countries bringing together resort partners, tourism board and airline partners (sellers) from the South Pacific to meet key European, UK and Asian tour operators (buyers) who are committed to promoting and selling the South Pacific destinations.
“We’re committed to promoting the South Pacific as a premiere destination. Visitor arrivals to SPTO member countries from Europe, our fourth biggest source market rose by an average of 3% over the past five years. European arrivals to the region peaked in 2016 at 14% but grew slowly at 1.3% in 2017 following the impacts of Brexit and preferences for outbound European travellers for short haul trips. We forecasted European arrivals to PICs to rebound to around 2% to 3% in 2018. As such, we’re delighted to increase awareness and strengthen visibility through the ‘Meet the Pacific’ roadshow to capitalise on this positive outlook, said SPTO Chief Executive Officer, Christopher Cocker.
SPTO is joined by national tourism offices (NTO’s) from Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, New Caledonia, Tahiti, Fiji, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands as well as private sector participation from Ahura Resorts, Samoa Scenic, Captain Cook Cruises, Matamanoa Island Resort, Musket Cove Islands Resort, Rosie Holidays Fiji, and Turama Pacific Travel.
“SPTO is excited to continue to support the Meet the Pacific, a marketing endeavour spearheaded and organised by industry partners Rosie Holidays Fiji and Turama Pacific Travel. Our main goal at this event is working with our member NTO’s and private sector partners towards a common goal of increasing awareness and driving more business into our islands out of the European travel market. The SPTO has an accreditation training programme specifically designed to educate travel agents on our Pacific Island destinations called the South Pacific Specialist programme which is actively promoted at the event. ” said Marketing Manager, Alisi Lutu.
The South Pacific Specialist Programme focuses on key information to help travel agents understand tourism products, services and general information about Pacific Island destinations.
The roadshow has completed its tour of Portugal and Italy and will continue on to the remaining cities in the UK, France, Netherlands and Denmark before China and Japan.
This is the first time that Portugal and the Asian cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo have been included in the Meet the Pacific roadshows. There has been keen interests from travel partners in these markets and with latest developments of the emerging China and Japan markets, the organisers have added these cities into the mix.
The upcoming new Fiji Airways direct flight into Japan and Air Niugini into China, is also reason enough for more promotion and education of the travel partners in these markets.