American Samoa attempts tourism tap
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Posted on: May 8th, 2008 by Andrew Mayer
The pacific Island of American Samoa will initiate a Visitors Bureau, in hopes of tapping the tourist market that has proven so successful for other countries in the South Pacific. Governor Togiola Tulafono has signed a new piece of legislation that establishes the creation of the American Samoa Visitors Bureau, an agency created for the purpose of promoting the country as a tourist destination to the rest of the world.
Tulafono said, “Tourism is a multimillion dollar industry that the territory can certainly take advantage of. With the proper mechanism in place, we can realize our full potential in a relatively short span of time.”
David Robinson, the chamber president added, “We are very supportive of this proposal because tourism development is very important to the territory and we feel tourism development has been lagging behind and we have not done enough, given the importance of a strong tourism industry for the economy.”
Such implementations have been a long time coming, as Samoa trails far behind other islands in the area in tourism numbers, due largely to the lack of official infrastructure.
Veritas Vincit
The Territory has always had a tourism office. This is nothing new, perhaps only a new source of funding has been found.
Airfare is outrageous and there are no packaged tours. The only airline serving Tafuna International arrives in the middle of the night. There are few hotels above a three-star rating if that. And the once jewel of the south seas, the Pago Pago Intercontinental Hotel (owned by the ASG for many years now) is a regional disgrace. There are nearly no beaches and tourism infrastructure or a culture of service (to tourists) doesn’t exist.
Good luck Gov. Tulafono - you knew these things over a decade ago when you were on the college board.