It has been a big week for Samoa’s tourism sector with hundreds of visitors in town for the week-long Teuila Festival, no doubt, pumping in thousands of tala into the local economy. Last month the International Va'a Federation (IVF) World Distance Championship hosted by Samoa, based on estimates courtesy of the organisers, generated over SAT$10 million for the local economy. It is no surprise that the Samoan economy is on a rebound after the tumultuous COVID-19 pandemic, which decimated the country’s tourism sector following the closure of the international borders. This was confirmed by the Central Bank of Samoa (CBS) last month when it attributed the spike in Samoa’s gross foreign reserves by 35.1 per cent to a record $1,098.3 million or $1.10 billion (equivalent to 11.1 months of import cover at the end of June 2023) due to the country’s strong economic growth.

Interestingly, an article (Euro markets dominate S.T.A. budget) in yesterday’s edition of the Weekend Observer, gave a breakdown of the authority’s marketing budget and how the budget for European markets took a large chunk of its total marketing budget but recorded the least number of visitors to our shores.

According to the article, the S.T.A. targeted five destinations with New Zealand allocated SAT$713,000 followed by the United Kingdom/Europe (SAT$371,000). The North American market had a budget of SAT$186,000 while  American Samoa got SAT$162,000 and the Asian market SAT$152,000. 

Looking at the above figures, it is obvious that the large investment in the marketing budget of the S.T.A. targeting the NZ market has begun to reap rewards for Samoa. That is if you go by the statistics from the Samoa Bureau of Statistics (SBS), which shows that Kiwis are leading in terms of arrivals into Samoa. 

But why should the S.T.A. continue to spend big on its marketing targeting Europe when Samoa is getting the least number of arrivals from the European continent? We believe it is time for the authority’s marketing division to review its policy with a view to channelling its funds to regions that are closer to our doorstep.

Statistics from the SBS show Australia as having the second-highest number of arrivals in Samoa followed by the United States of America and then American Samoa. Surely, there is scope for Australia to have the highest number of arrivals in Samoa on par with New Zealand due to its large Samoan diaspora, especially due to both Australian east coast cities Sydney and Brisbane having direct weekly flights to Apia. Rechanneling funding from the authority’s marketing budget for European markets to Australia could be the magic wand that is needed to boost numbers flying out of Australia for Samoa.

And it wouldn’t hurt to do a review of the marketing budget of the STA after the Fa’atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) administration admitted during the debate on the 2023/2024 Budget that it has cut funding for the tourism sector. Obviously, the strategic timing of the reopening of Samoa’s international borders on 1 August 2022 played a pivotal role in boosting arrival numbers, as the current Tourism Minister, Toeolesuluuslu Cedric Schuster said in his explanation to the Parliament at that time when defending the cuts.

With less funding at its disposal, it would pay for the STA to be more strategic and focus on joint projects or partnerships that would reap the biggest rewards, in terms of marketing Beautiful Samoa globally, but for less. We believe the rugby show “RWC on Island” – which is being shot and produced in Samoa with weekly episodes airing on New Zealand’s Sky TV for the duration of the 2023 Rugby World Cup – is in that mould. 

Samoans Tagaloa John Tapu and Oscar Kightley, who are the masterminds behind the televised program through their NZ company Kava Bowl Media, told this newspaper that they are partners with the STA which is backing the televised show’s production in Samoa.

The show will feature Pacific rugby legends doing commentary and analysis of this month’s RWC with a particular focus on the island teams Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.

With Tagaloa's decades-long television production experience, combined with the talent of platinum award-winning Samoan-Kiwi actor Mr. Kightley, the first episode of “RWC on Island” which went to air last Thursday evening on Sky TV is a fusion of island-style television commentary, expert rugby commentary tinged with brief exposes of Samoan culture, such as Flying Fijian legend Sereli Bobo joining locals in Poutasi village to make the umu. We commend the STA and Kava Bowl Media on the partnership.

With the RWC in France to run from 8 September to 28 October 2023, Samoa is looking at very long hours of airtime courtesy of this show’s weekly episodes, which when uploaded to YouTube means an expanding audience which should boost visitor numbers in the long-term.

Using rugby and our beloved Manu Samoa, as they prepare for their first RWC match the following week, will obviously go a long way in marketing Samoa more widely to a global audience. Let’s continue to think outside the box as we continue the task of rebuilding our local economy.