New tourism policy announced in Tahiti Presse today: cheaper flights soon, but only for shorter stays:
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Tourism : 10/12/2009 at 11:41AM
Tourism Minister proposes new development policy, new promotion campaign

(Tahitipresse) - "A fair and interdependent tourism" is French Polynesia Tourism Minister Jacqui Drollet's proposed new tourism development policy, requiring a four billion French Pacific francs (US$51.3m/33.5m euros) line in the Temaru government's 2010 budget.


There were three key elements to Drollet's proposed new development policy:

-- Resume Air Tahiti Nui non-stop Sydney-Papeete flights that were halted in April.
-- Develop Great Pacific markets, such as the U.S., Brazil or Australia.
-- Develop domestic tourism, which only represents 20% of the current tourism industry.

Drollet's development policy proposal last week came after he presented to the French Polynesia government's Council of Ministers a complementary promotion to the just-concluded "Invest in Your Love" campaign. The council approved the promotion campaign proposal, which now goes to the French Polynesia Assembly for approval.

The new campaign, running from November until next March, would focus only on the Tahiti's N° 1 North American tourist market, and would include Air Tahiti Nui as a partner. The cost, estimated at US$1.55m (€1.05m), would be covered out of special global funds transferred from the French government.

The highlights of this proposed promotion are:

-- "Kids Fly Free", which would offer a free roundtrip Air Tahiti Nui ticket from Los Angeles for each child traveling with an adult.
-- "Short Stay", which would offer a 25% discount for all of 2010 on standard Air Tahiti Nui flights from Los Angeles and Air Tahiti inter-island flights.
-- A US$999 ticket for a roundtrip Air Tahiti Nui flight from Los Angeles for a seven-night stay in Tahiti and Her Islands. A similar discounted fare would apply to Air Tahiti inter-island flights. These tickets would go on sale to the public for four weeks with the launching of the promotional campaign. They would involve travel between Nov. 13 and Dec. 14, 2009, and Jan. 12-March 31 next year.

Interviewed later by French language daily newspaper Les Nouvelles de Tahiti (LNDT) about the $999 package, Drollet said, "The idea is to come to (French) Polynesia for seven days and to only pay for five in the hotels." This will cost the Tourism Ministry 150 million French Pacific francs (US$1.9m/€1.26m) in the budget, he added.

Drollet's promotional campaign and tourism development policy proposals occur as the Tahiti and Her Islands destination continues to struggle with the direct effects from the global financial crisis.

Through the first seven months of this year, Tahiti welcomed 87,929 overseas visitors. That was 25,876, or 22.7%, fewer visitors than the 113,805 welcomed during the same period last year. All of Tahiti's overseas tourist markets are feeling the impact.

-- 22,742 U.S. visitors, 13,951, or 35.9%, fewer than a year ago.
-- 22, 519 French visitors, 1,825, or 12.2%, fewer.
-- 17,265 European (non-French) visitors, 3,699, or 17.6%, fewer.
-- 9,378 Japanese visitors, 1,324, or12.4%, fewer.
-- 2,732 New Zealand visitors, 1,074, or 28.2%, fewer.
-- 3,539 Australian visitors, 2,337, or 39.8%, fewer.
-- 9,754 visitors from elsewhere, 4,147, or 29.8%, fewer than a year ago.

Whereas hotels had a combined average occupancy rate of 51.1% for the first seven months of 2008, this year's average was 43.4%.

In his proposed new tourism development policy, Drollet said, "Tourism's economic result should be spread out among the maximum population, with the precaution of protecting our environment, (and) our culture, if such development is also to be a sustainable development."

Drollet conceded that reopening non-stop Air Tahiti Nui flights between Australia and Tahiti would cost some 300 million French Pacific francs (US$3.8m/€2.5m). However, he added that good results could be expected "over the long term".

When the non-stop service that began in July 2005 with two and then three weekly flights was halted on April 13, Air Tahiti Nui rerouted Australian visitors to Tahiti via three weekly Sydney-Auckland code share flights with Qantas Airways. ATN operates three weekly Auckland-Papeete flights, while Air New Zealand flies that route twice weekly.

The tourism minister's proposal comes as media reports from Down Under indicate that Australians are choosing to spend their vacations overseas rather than take local breaks.

Wotif.com, an online accommodation provider, reported this week that bookings for some overseas destinations had jumped 57% over the past year. An added encouragement has been the strong performance of the Australian dollar, which recently skyrocketed to 13-month highs.

According to Travel.com.au, the most popular overseas destinations for Australians are the U.S., Fiji, New Zealand and Asia. The Top 10 destination list also includes Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Bali, Thailand, Cambodia, the Cook Islands, Vietnam and India.

Drollet explained during the interview by the LNDT his proposed approach to promoting the Tahiti and Her Islands destination. "If the promotion is open to criticism, we can't stop the promotion. It must be continued. On the other hand, one can imagine that this promotion be oriented differently.

"For example," he said, "Brazil will be visible for several years for events dealing with football (the 2014 World Soccer Cup host) and the Olympic Games (the 2016 summer games host). It's up to us to develop a special strategy with this emerging country, and particularly with a joint effort with LAN," the Chilean national carrier with two weekly Santiago-Easter Island-Papeete return flights.

For domestic tourism, Drollet told the newspaper, "When told that our destination is too expensive because it is too far from the source markets," tourism industry officials need to accept the proposals made.

"Initially, can't we simply just promote our domestic market, which accounts for 20%?" During last month's GIE Tahiti Tourisme's 3rd Tourism Fair "we invested 18 million French Pacific francs (US$230,769/€150,840) and the turnover in three days was 255 million French Pacific francs (US$3.27m/€2.14m). This must be repeated."

During his presentation of his proposed tourism policy for 2010 to the Temaru government, Drollet was questioned about whether Tahiti should participate in the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

"We face a number of difficulties related to the fact that we are not an independent country, that we are inside the Pacific (Islands) pavilion, and that Chinese officials do not want to have any difficulties over relations with French officials," Drollet replied.

He added that a high-ranking Chinese dignitary would be visiting Tahiti in November, and only then would the Temaru government decide whether to participate in the Shanghai World Expo.

The Temaru government's August decision to chose the Pacific Islands pavilion over France's for the world expo will cost Tahiti a registration fee of $650,000. The Council of Ministers has already agreed to allocate 110 million French Pacific francs (US$1.4m/€921,798) for promotion work.

If Tahiti had chosen to be part of the French government pavilion, its delegation would have been present with France's other overseas collectivities for one month. However, Tahiti's choice to independently sign up for the Pacific Islands pavilion means its delegation would be present in Shanghai for six months, or the entire length of the world expo from May 1 to Oct. 31.