Update from the Division – April 2023

Kia Orana and welcome to another monthly update from SPTO’s Division of Sustainable Tourism!

We are featuring the Cook Islands in the April Sustainable Newsbeat as our country of focus. Interesting updates are provided on regenerative and transformative tourism. Across the region, we are also sharing some stories from Nauru, Wallis & Futuna, Solomon Islands and Tonga. Some insightful resources and announcements are also included in the newsbeat.

As part of its journey towards regenerative tourism, the Cook Islands Tourism has developed the Cook Islands Tourism Development Strategy and rolling out a pilot programme on regenerative travel experiences. To support this, the Cook Islands Tourism is also currently compiling transformative tourism models to align the concept of regenerative tourism with local community values. Mr George Mateariki (AKA ‘Birdman George’) is Cook Islands’ Sustainability Champion.

A new report from UNWTO and the Food and Agriculture Organisation on ‘Understanding and Quantifying Mountain Tourism’ is the resource of the month. Some tips and facts on sustainable tourism are provided. Check out some interesting upcoming events and announcements.

April saw a very busy time as well for the Division which has now expanded to a 6-member team! Here are some highlights from the Division in April:

• Commencement of the Sustainable Tourism Internship Programme
• Review of the draft Tokelau Sustainable Tourism Policy with the Tokelau tourism team
• Division planning meeting for the next Pacific Sustainable Tourism Summit
• Division planning commenced for the Regional Climate Resilience Workshop
• Resubmission of the revised Draft Pacific Sustainable Tourism Standards to the GSTC Assessor
• Advertisement of the consultancy services for the:
  • Cultural and Heritage Site Assessments in the Pacific, and the
  • Preliminary Feasibility Assessment of potential Geopark sites in Fiji

If you would like to access our next e-newsletter, you can sign up here and receive latest updates from the region in sustainable tourism. For our next issue, we will be featuring Papua New Guinea as our country of focus.

Should you have any queries or want your sustainable tourism story featured in the next issue, feel free to contact us at sustainable@spto.org.

Meitaki ma’ata! (Thank you very much)