Samoa tourism’s biggest problem

Dear Editor,

Here is the biggest problem Samoa has about the Samoa Tourism Industry:

The main problem of and challenge for our tourism industry is that Samoa is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. 

If you look at a map of the Pacific you will find that Hawaii and Fiji are taking all the tourists because of their ideal locations as compared to Samoa. 

Samoa is in the middle of Fiji and Hawaii therefore has a disadvantage for attracting tourists.

Hawaii is taking all the tourists from Hong Kong, USA/Canada and Japan. 

Hawaii’s monthly visitor numbers is around 650,000 a month compared to Samoa’s 10,000 a month.

There is no need for tourists in Hong Kong, USA/Canada and Japan to come further down to Samoa when everything they need (weather, accommodation, activities, etc) can be found in Hawaii (Even the Samoan culture and food is found in Hawaii’s Pacific Cultural Centre.)

Fiji is closer to Australia and New Zealand so they are taking all the tourists from those countries. Fiji’s average visitor numbers is around 45,000 a month.

Samoa has an average of 4 daily plane arrivals to Samoa compared to Fiji’s 25 daily, and Hawaii’s daily plane arrivals of 200 (or 10 planes landing an hour). 

I do not have the solution but that is the government’s job to figure out how to solve this problem. That money spent on upgrading/face-lifting Faleolo Airport should be used to solve this tourism problem.

 

Keith Alderson 



Samoa Observer

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