Despite challenges facing the tourism industry, local woodcarvers are finding opportunities in the international market to enable them to continue to earn an income. 

Kosema Fuauli, a 31-year-old from Sauano Fagaloa who has been carving for eight years, highlighted the challenges that his group has faced due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Part of a group of woodcarvers who are based at the Samoa Tourism Authority's (S.T.A) cultural village in Apia, he said the pandemic has had a big impact on their income due to the closure of the international borders and shutting down of the tourism industry.

The group now exports woodwork such as tanoa, wooden bowls, cricket bats and small canoes to countries such as America and Australia using the Makeki online platform.

Mr. Fuauli told the Samoa Observer in an interview on Wednesday that not a lot of people in Samoa buy handicrafts.

"The tanoa that we are making are going to be sent overseas. They call us about what they want and then we do it and send it overseas," he said.

He emphasised there has been a big difference since the border closures brought on by the pandemic as it affected the amount of income they could earn.

When borders were open the group would usually generate about $1500 a week but the pandemic cut their their takings when the borders closed last year.

Mr. Fuauli said they are the only ones working now as a lot of youth have chosen other types of work no one has showed interest in wanting to join their group.

Despite the challenges, he said that the work they do needs to continue.

He said the income they earn is slowly going back to normal as by exporting their handicrafts they can earn up to $2000 a week.

And due to the border closure, domestic tourism has become the focus of the tourism industry in Samoa.

In the "Samoa 2040 Plan" launched earlier this year, the Ministry of Finance (M.O.F) released its vision for the nations' future economic development. Tourism is listed as one of the four pillars to drive that growth in the coming decades.

The plan projects that tourism will be the largest driver of the nations' economic growth by 2040, accounting for roughly $500 million of the plan's goal to boost the nation's gross domestic product by $1.25 billion by 2040.

The other proposed pillars for Samoa's economic development include the digital economy, agriculture and fisheries, and labour mobility, which combined are estimated to add approximately $750 million to Samoa's national economic output.