Tongan mats and ngatu were on display in Miami last week at a major conference for the cruise shipping industry.

The Cruise Shipping Miami 2015 conference featured 900 stands from 125 countries from 16-19 March.

According to Monalisa Palu, the National Coordinator of the Tonga Handicrafts and Cultural Tourism Support Programme, the Ngatu displayed at the conference was an attention grabber and a promotional success. The Ngatu was featured in the conference's Cruise Shipping Newsletter.

Monalisa stated “Tonga was promoted here because we laid out the full ngatu and the process and story was explained which made it even more fascinating for the audience. In this highly competitive cruise industry with so many ports and destinations, it is important to be authentic and unique,

“We decided to hang it up on our wall in the combined South Pacific Cruise Alliance booth featuring eight Pacific islands, including Tonga. It gave us a point of differentiation from our neighbouring countries and immediately drew the attention of visitors,”

Tonga’s presence at the conference also represented a major step for recognition as biosecurity concerns surrounding Tonga products were addressed with the introduction of a new manual, along with support from New Zealand and Australia.

Monalisa said that in the past local Tongan products on sale were often restricted by visiting cruise chips because of biosecurity concerns.  

“A valuable outcome from this conference was the sharing of our biosecurity requirements and quality assurance manual developed by the Tonga Handicrafts and Cultural Tourism Support Programme which was reviewed and approved by Australia’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, New Zealand’s Ministry of Primary Industries and Tonga’s Ministry of Agriculture & Food, Forests and Fisheries

"We were able to share this so that managers could pass on the correct information to their ships visiting our shores,”.

The Tonga Handicrafts and Cultural Tourism Support Programme is a non-governmental organisation aimed at fostering the Tonga’s cultural and handicraft industry.