Update from Tourism Tonga
The cruise ships certainly have a great impact and last week’s visit to Nukualofa by Japanese cruise liner Asuka II and the Queen Elizabeth was amazing with over 3,500 visitors and almost 1,500 crew in the port.
As our Chairman Ross Chapman said at the Tourism Tonga board meeting yesterday, we often talk about the number of passengers on board but many of the crew make it ashore and enjoy the destination as much as the passengers.
Big Momma at Pangaimotu told Fay that the last two visits have been fantastic for business and also commented on the huge numbers of tourists around – a lot more in the kingdom than this time last year. We have just been notified that there are two extra visits announced with the Silver Discoverer and Caledonia Sky scheduling extra visits to Vava’u in October and December. That brings the number up to 23 visits across the kingdom this year – up from 14 last year and while two were here due to the storm warning in Samoa, it really is good to have them.A Tongan contingent are heading to Seatrade in Miami in a fortnight to drum up more business for Tonga.
We took the opportunity last week to make a promotional video of the on shore activities and the video will be shown at Seatrade. The first cut is already finished and looks excellent – really showing off the entertainment and a lot of very happy passengers. Well done to Seini – she was our ‘movie director’ for the day. DON’T FORGET the COSTA DELIZIOSA arrives in Nuku’alofa this Saturday with over 2,800 passengers and 1,100 crew – that will keep the team on their toes! Just a reminder from Fay to keep your stocks up of the Official Visitor Guide (OVG). They are no good in our storage shed so if you have run out, please drop into the Visitor Information Centre in Vuna Road and pick some supplies. I will make sure there are plenty in Ha’apai and Vava’u as well.
The OVG will be reprinted later this year and the Marketing team will be in contact from July/August onwards. You may want to cast a ‘critical’ eye over the guide and let us know of any errors or omissions. The first edition was a great success but there are always small errors so we want to eliminate them. The www.tongaholiday.com website is constantly being updated and the latest addition is the events page – you will see the link on the task bar at the top of the page. Send any events that would be of interest to Mana so we can put them on the site.
This is not for community events but targeted specifically at visitors. Concept drawings for the Vava’u and Ha’apai Visitor Information Centres are underway and we will share our ideas with you later in the month when Fay and I make our next visit to catch up with you. Finally this week, disruptions to domestic air travel are being resolved after a technical problem caused cancellation of all J32 flights which left Real Tonga with only one aircraft. Things are slowly returning to normal. Have a great week and may your cash registers be full and your smiles a mile wide.
Yours in Tourism.
Stuart Perry
General Manager
Tourism Tonga(Tonga Tourism Authority)
00676 781 9830
www.tongaholiday.com
