The Samoa Tourism Authority (STA) has denied any connections with the viral Tik Tok tourists who claimed to be shooting videos to promote Samoan and had confrontations with local beach fale operators.

The incident could also lead to standardised charges for beach fale operators and signs to inform patrons.

The STA has advised tourists that if anyone intends to create content for their social media activity, they need to go through proper channels and seek relevant permission from tourism operators and custodians of beaches.

A group of tourists have claimed on social media about being overcharged for the use of fale and entry to beach.

Confrontations caught on camera were put on social media and this was followed by anger from the beach operators who feel that the tourists were at wrong.

The STA has been promoting the beach fales as tourist attractions to the world in the hopes of increasing visitor arrivals. They say they are in the process of implementing response measures.

“STA recently restarted its international media visit programme and has with the support of tourism businesses hosted media. Through these, valuable exposure via articles and features highlighting the destination have been published and syndicated across multiple channels,” a statement issued by the STA said.

“While STA acknowledges that the visitors intended to produce promotional content for its channels, it did not come through its media programme.

“STA takes this opportunity to remind visitors to liaise with tourism business owners including custodians of sites and attractions, before undertaking activities and experiences especially beyond their main place of stay.”

The STA said that the Aleipata Tourism Alliance which looks after the operators at Lalomanu will call a meeting of its members to discuss what happened with the goal of collectively rolling out measures, including standard-fees among members and signage to help protect beach fale operators.

Following the reopening of Samoa’s borders to international travellers on August 1, the tourism industry benefited directly from the gradual increase in visitor arrivals in alignment with the growth in air connectivity and international marketing efforts by STA and tourism business operators.

These benefits have flowed onto other industries and communities that make up the tourism supply-chain.

Meanwhile, the rage has not died down. Many Samoans have now taken to social media calling on tourists to understand the Samoan way of life and how the beach fale tourism operates.

There are some who have called on authorities to standardise rates as Samoa intends to bring in tourists and such situations need to be avoided.