Job loses within the country's tourism sector has affected more than 1,000 people brought on by the direct impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Samoa and the region.

This was highlighted in a Pacific Tourism Sector Assessment written by the Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative (P.S.D.I.) Tourism Expert, Dr. Sara Currie, with the publication support from PSDI Communications and Knowledge Manager, Erin Harris.

The assessment titled “Looking Forward VOL.1, Evaluating the Challenges for Pacific Tourism after COVID-19" was published in 2021 and is the first in a series examining new and long-standing challenges in the Pacific tourism sector.

It assesses the sector’s existing challenges, examines the impact of COVID-19 on all aspects of tourism supply and demand, and begins to offer a series of recommendations for addressing the sector’s new and long-standing challenges as it recovers.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is different—bigger, longer, and more global and complex than any shock the tourism industry has felt before,” reads the assessment. 

“Hotel revenues, jobs, and future prospects collapsed during the pandemic.”

According to the assessment, more than 1,000 accommodation jobs were lost in Samoa in April 2020 alone and surplus room capacity was estimated at 76–91 per cent.

“By March 2021, more than half the country’s 5,000 tourism workers were reported to have lost their jobs, with most, if not all, resorts outside Apia being closed (Tokelau 2021),” reads the assessment. 

The Pacific Tourism Sector Assessment also revealed that of the 26 per cent of workers who had lost their jobs in Samoa by July 2020, 64 per cent were women (International Labour Organization 2020).

“Although it varies country to country, tourism is an important source of economic development in the Pacific.

“Tourism provides more than 20 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in six Pacific DMCs—the Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Palau, Samoa, and Vanuatu.

“Such attractions have helped make tourism the largest economic sector in the Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Palau, and Vanuatu, and second only to remittances in Samoa.”

Tourism growth was also uneven across the Pacific DMCs before the pandemic.

The larger tourist markets, such as the Cook Islands, Fiji and Samoa grew consistently during 2012–2019.

Travelers from New Zealand dominated arrivals in the Polynesian nations of the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa, and Tonga.

Domestic travel is predominantly for business and [visiting friends and relatives] VFR purposes.

“A 2013 economic impact analysis in Samoa found nearly half of domestic spend goes towards fa’alavelave—the term for a contribution of money on important family occasions such as funerals and weddings (Government of Samoa and Government of New Zealand 20134).”

In addition, the assessment also highlighted that the Pacific (developing member country) DMCs’ exposure to natural hazards can be devastating.

“The damage and losses caused by a tsunami that killed 189 people in Samoa in 2009 equated to more than 22 per cent of the country’s GDP. This was followed in 2012 by losses equivalent to 28 per cent of GDP in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Evan (ADB n.d.a.).”

The publication also covered waste management. 

“Even countries such as Samoa that have comparatively better waste management are subject to complaints in international visitors surveys (IVSs) of waste on roadsides and beaches and in swimming holes (NZTRI 2020d). 

“Samoa and Tonga have initiated beautification programs to address the symptoms, but the causes are systemic and need to be addressed with both tourism and long-term sustainability in mind.”

The assessment also covered broad government policy decisions and how it can hurt the tourism industry.

“Samoa banned restaurant eating, taking public transport, or swimming at beaches on Sunday under a state of emergency in March 2020.

“This diminished the business available to operators from domestic tourism during the pandemic.”

Additionally, many smaller tourism operators who cannot get bank loans in Samoa due to their low equity and capacity to repay turn to micro-financing, but some of the programs—such as South Pacific Business Development—reportedly charge annual interest rates of up to 24 per cent–27 per cent while offering only 2.5 per cent–3 per cent on savings deposits.