Tonga visitors increase as Tourism Development Project ends [1]
Wednesday, December 8, 2004 - 11:31. Updated on Tuesday, September 10, 2013 - 17:58.
The AUD$5 million Tonga Tourism Development Project ended in November after six and a half years of Australian funding.
The project, which started in 1997, was administered in Tonga by Geoff Mort and Jennuy Calkin of the Calkin and Simpson Tourism Group.
Jenny said that they had restructured the Tonga Visitors Bureau and established a strong foundation where it can administer and promote the development of the tourism industry in the kingdom.
Under the Tourism Development Project they were involved in a number of development projects such as the establishing of a Town Improvement Program, establishing of a tourism trail, bringing in foreign journalists, and the administration of a skill based training program.
When Jenny and Geoff left at the end of November the two projects which they felt highlighted their work in Tonga were the restructuring of the organisation of the Tonga Visitors Bureau and the establishment of a new Marketing Division.
Jenny said that the Marketing Division is headed by Sione Moala as marketing...s Deputy Director in charge of special events. It has a public relations manager, "and more recently was putting staff in charge of specific areas like New Zealand, Australia and the United States.
"We concentrated mainly on the marketing side in the last three years because we believed that this was the only way to get visitors to Tonga and for them to actually spend money here was to create awareness overseas," said Jenny, noting that putting staff in charge of specific areas has proven not only effective but had developed very close relationships with wholesalers of that specific country.
Jenny pointed to the increase in the number of visitors to Tonga, from 26,000 to 40,000, "and visitors spending also went up from $12 million pa'anga to $23 million pa'anga per annum as of last year, in terms of foreign exchange.
"The project is certainly not responsible for all of that but it is a catalyst for that change to happen".