Australian Prime Minister is carried on a pa’ata in a traditional welcome for all leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum last Tuesday

By Tupuola Terry Tavita

Tourism is booming in theCook Islands.

So much so that hotels are now opting to bring in workers- especially fromFiji– to supplement a growing labour shortfall in the tourism industry.

In terms of size,Rarotongacan easily fit into the Aleipata region with land to spare. But it hosts tourist numbers equivalent – if not more  – than whatSamoaentertains each year.

So what is the key to theCook Islands’ success?

There are many things that obviously they are doing right. At the core of it is a country – and a populace – that realizes that tourism is their bread and butter. Something that is completely lost on many sectors inSamoa, especially some village leaderships.

Cook Islanders – who prevalently are of a gentle nature – are extremely friendly to tourists and visitors alike. Meet anyone on the streets and you will be greeted with an exuberant Kia Orana! and a string of friendly questions in no particular order.

Is this your first time in theCook Islands? How are you finding it? Enjoying your stay? Have you been to our market?

When told that my colleague got robbed of all his money at our hotel, many showed sheer disappointment.

That’s not good. It gives us a bad name. They should close that hotel down. What are the Police doing about it?

Apparently a good job as they apprehended the youth, a hotel cleaner deported fromNew Zealandfor similar juvenile problems.

Many offered help, some offered a place to stay, money, others, fuming, offered to go over to the neighbourhood and sort the deviants out.

The Cook islands, least the mainislandofRarotonga, has its entire economy geared towards the tourism industry, the tourism dollar. It is the main source of jobs, the main market for farming and business, entertainment and whatnot.

Any negative impact on the industry affects families in a very personal way.

Locals have also become very industrious in taking advantage of what tourism can offer. A friend this column stayed with used to work in a winery inNew Zealand. He has successfully used that experience to setting up a small fruit winery in the tourist-popular Muri region of the island.

A sign on his front gate asks tourists – many of whom of course enjoy their wine – and locals to bring in their empty wine bottles. They bring them in by the wheelbarrow load.

He cleans the bottles up and refills it with his very own wine and liqueur brewed from local papaya, banana, guava and whatever else fruit he can conjure up in his small lab at home.

The wine is then sold back to the tourists and locals who have taken a liking to it. A bigNew Zealandwinery has taken an interest in his business and has offered to buy a container-load of the stuff each month.

This will translate to one container of wine coming in and another container of wine going out. Great for Cook Islands foreign exchange, good for my friend’s pocket, the tourists have their wine and environment problems that come with discarding empty wine bottles is solved.

And its not just wine, other local people are going into homemade fragrance, cooking essence, oils, jam and spreads produced from local fruits.

They are not developing import substitution industries, building and creating niche exports and export markets and, thus, making headway in balancing the trade imbalance.

The importance of tourism to the welfare of the community is also not lost on the media.

Some years ago when a minor outbreak of rash was reportedly connected to swimming in some parts of the island, the media outlets agreed to treat the matter responsibly and a degree of sensitivity.

The understanding was the media does not want to scare the tourists away.

Such a story would have had the local media inSamoajumping up and down with sensational front pages and thou-hath-not finger-pointing editorials.

Note to local editors, how many potential tourists have bypassedSamoabecause of your tendency to highlight rape, incest, murder, etc, on your front pages?

While you make your bucks selling exclusively negative news, what is the impact on tourism and the welfare of those who depend on the tourist dollar?

In order to attract good workers and lift professionalism and service in the industry, the pay has to be adequate. I’ve been told that the industry has a separate wage scale legislated by government.

And you can see that with people living in good houses, buying standard groceries and driving good cars. The industry continues to lift people’s general standard of living.

This column is not familiar with land issues in the Cooks but it is obvious that landowners here are accommodating of foreign investment and hotel development. There are at least five or six hotels the size of Aggie Grey’s Beach Resort at Mulifanua and about 80 other boutique ones the standard of Sinalei Resort on justRarotongaitself.

Go to Muri, and hotels and restaurants there are virtually door-to-door.

Out-of-touch village leadership in Samoa who openly oppose development and the myriad of benefits it brings to their people should look to theCook Islandsfor guidance and enlightenment.

The tourism authorities also obviously are doing a great job in marketing their destination. The newspaper is full of hotel and restaurant advertisements, I’ve been told there are no less than sixty websites promoting Brand Cook Islands and the selection of attractive tourist brochure and pamphlet  publications you see at the airport and hotel lobbies can easily fill up a book shelf.

Perhaps then we should send our tourist people – those with excellent observation and application skills – to the Cook Islands and replicate here – in our own unique Samoan way – what they are doing right there.

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