Eight regional tourism organisations and government bodies along with respective tour operators, port authorities and shipping agencies were represented at last week’s Seatrade Cruise Global at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the United States of America.  Attending the week-long exhibition in a bid to enhance the knowledge of Pacific Islands’ cruising destinations for cruise line operators were the:

American Samoa Visitors Bureau

Tahiti Tourisme

Cook Islands Tourism

Tourism Fiji

Samoa Tourism Authority

New Caledonia Tourisme

Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau

Papua New Guinea Tourism and Pro-motions Authority

Tonga

South Pacific Tourism Organisation chief executive officer Ilisoni Vuidreketi said Seatrade offers their member countries the opportunity to network with global cruise line stakeholders as cruising in the Pacific region saw a 66 per cent growth in 2015.

The South Pacific Cruise Alliance (SPCA) facilitated the planning of a Pacific Village Exhibition supported by the South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO).

“Cruise tourism is expected to grow substantially in 2016 and we need to provide the impetus to enable this sector to grow properly. This is why we seek exhibitions such as Seatrade and working partnerships with SPCA because it opens up our members to international cruise tourism stakeholders and they are able to make these networks,” Mr Vuidreketi said.

“The delegation met with deployment and itinerary planners from key cruise line companies such as Royal Caribbean Cruises, Carnival Cruises, P& O Cruises, Silversea Cruises, Holland America Cruises, Salen Ship, Paul Gauguin and Fred Olsen Cruises. This assisted their understanding of port and destination development initiatives and updates from across the Pacific islands. We believe this promoted more new destinations to be included in future cruise itineraries and increase the number of cruise visits to the region.

“Whilst the Pacific Island members of SPTO are at different stages in terms of the maturity of their cruise tourism industries we have taken bold steps towards preparing our members for the growth in cruise tourism through the European Union funded Pacific Cruise Market Intelligence Report (PCRMI) and the Pacific Cruise Tourism Development Strategy (PCTDS) (2015- 2019) developed by Sydney-based Chart Management Consultants and launched in 2015.”