REBUILDING TOURISM : Tourism Minister, Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster
By Staff Writer
Tourism Minister, Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster, has set sight on the Samoan diaspora to attract more tourists to Samoa.
His primary goal starts off with the 200 thousand Samoans living in New Zealand and onwards to Australia and other countries the Samoan migration has reached.
“A case scenario to consider is the thousands of Samoans returning to New Zealand where they live after spending the holidays with relatives and friends in Samoa,” Toeolesulusulu outlined.
“The story they will take home to their families, friends and workmates are of the enjoyable times they had in the islands, and that becomes free promotion for Samoa as a holiday destination.
“When you have thousands of Samoans spreading the good word, imagine the interest in all those other people they tell their stories to.”
Popular personalities with direct links to Samoa is another promising doorway targeted by the Minister.
Champion boxers like Australian based Jai Opetaia is one example of what Samoas tourism promotion is already tapping into.
“Toa Samoa’s popularity is another example when it lifted Samoa’s profile to a world level, and we really have to take advantage of that kind of exposure.”
Tourism is struggling back to recovery from a virtual standstill over the last two years with the lifting this year of the COVID health protection ban on the international travel borders.
From last August when commercial flights returned to December last month, there has been “…a huge influx of Samoans flying in to spend time with families they have not seen since the COVID travel ban.”
“I also took an inspection visit of some of the hotels last October and bookings are up to February in some and that is a strong bounce back for the industry.”
To keep the new arrivals momentum going, Toeolesulusulu, is hopeful more airline carriers will fly to Samoa especially the New Zealand-Samoa route.
He does agree the Air New Zealand fares are costly, but it is only because it is the only airline serving the route.
Once the other airlines decide to follow the AirNZ lead the Minister is confident of the competition bringing the fares down.
He pointed to flights already being made by Qantas and Fiji Airways with Virgin Airlines reportedly returning to the route.
“Once we have three or four airlines flying into Samoa from NZ the fares will start coming down.”
The Minister agreed other airlines will only be attracted to fly to Samoa and be involved in a fares competition if the volume of travelers is enough to be economically viable for the service to run.
But he is confident the traveling numbers will be enough to meet the demand for additional airlines.
“Since our borders opened, AirNZ has had to schedule additional flights to meet the demand yet there is still a backlog of travelers.
“Airline fares do not really matter much also to the true holiday maker who is more interested in the attractions the destination has to offer.”
The controversy over the national carrier Samoa Airways not having an aircraft to service the international routes and make it possible to bring the fares down, is rejected by Toeolesulusulu.
He noted how the 2017-2019 statics on travelers showed 60 percent of the total number were on AirNZ flights regardless of higher air fares.
“I don’t agree with the belief that any loss in inbound travel is from not having our own aircraft.
“Maybe someday we can have our own aircraft but for now we cannot afford to pay off our national carrier’s huge debt and cover operational costs to fly the aircraft at the same time.”
The Minister would not commit to when it is suitable for the national carrier to bring in their own aircraft to run the international routes for Samoa.