South Pacific Tourism 2018 Exchange Opens In Adelaide

The 4^th South Pacific Tourism Exchange opened yesterday hosting over 60 buyers from the Pacific and over 51 sellers from across the globe.

SPTO Chief Executive Officer, Christopher Cocker said in his speech at the opening that the organisation continues to lobby for sustainable tourism, as a tool for change and its importance to the South Pacific region cannot be emphasized enough.

“Our greatest assets are our people, environment and culture and we must protect and promote them through sustainable development. Hence this year, we are spreading the message that while we are proud to share our culture with the world, and welcome tourists and travelers to discover and experience our destinations, that they also respect our assets” said Mr. Cocker.

Also speaking at the opening was SPTE18 major sponsor Bank of the South Pacific’s Treasurer Corporate & International, Daniel Livino who said BSP were committed to SPTE as a platform to engage the Pacific tourism market.

“As a regional bank with operations in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, Bank South Pacific sees the benefit of supporting an event such as this because of the potential to grow our Pacific Market. Further, we are also able to work with you all to look at ways to support sustainable Pacific businesses in tourism which align with our Corporate Social Responsibility Program” said Mr Livino.

SPTO is also proud to have it’s first Pacific Ambassador, Miss Pacific Islands, Matauaina Gwendolyn To’omalatai who spoke on climate change and it’s connection to sustainable tourism.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Climate change is at the doorstep of the Pacific with frequent cyclones like Fiji has just experienced or for my beautiful home of American Samoa this means the overheating of our ocean which means the bleaching of our coral reefs, we are the custodians of our islands and we must  make an effort to advocate for our tourism industry to go green, without our lands we cannot practice our culture,  people from all over the world travel to see our Pacific Island destinations, this is what we’re selling and you’re buying today” said Ms To’omalatai.

SPTE18 has a total of 51 buyers and 60 sellers. Our sellers are from Australia, Fiji, France, Italy, Netherlands, UK, USA, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. Our sellers are from our 17 member countries.

For more information on SPTE: http://www.sptexchange.org/

 

About SPTO

Established in 1983 as the Tourism Council of the South Pacific, the South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) is the mandated organisation representing Tourism in the region. Its 18 Government members are American Samoa, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia,

Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and the People’s Republic of China. In addition to government members, the South Pacific Tourism Organisation enlists a private sector membership base.

 

For further information, please contact:
Alisi Lutu, Marketing Manager
South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO)
Email: alutu@spto.org or +679 3304177

 

 

(Source: South Pacific Tourism Organisation [SPTO] 13 April 2018)

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