Editor's Comment, by Pesi Fonua

The inaugural declaration by the UN General Assembly for 2017 as the first International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development is a great incentive for Tonga and a time for some serious reflection on why we are failing to build more sustainable tourism industry - one that can prosper and create more jobs.

The concept of Sustainable Tourism for Development could be the driving force we need to not only inspire the community to get behind the development of our Tourism Industry but also to encourage official commitment to the principle of sustainability - along with much more thoughtful conservation of our heritage sites and promotion of our cultural strengths.

Embracing genuinely sustainable tourism cannot come soon enough for Tonga.

During the past four decades Tonga has been trying to develop its three core industries of Agriculture, Fisheries and Tourism. So far not one of these industries is operating as successfully as might have been anticipated. After millions of dollars were invested, the industries are still not sustainable.

Tonga has been classified as a Lower Middle-Income Developing Country, “a trade dependent country that relies on high proportions of imports of food and production inputs.”

Taxes on imports form Tonga’s second-biggest source of revenue.

But taxing the Private Sector is still the government's largest source of revenue.

In 2014-15 the Hotel and Restaurant sector of the Tourism industry accounted for 3% of Tonga’s GDP.

Tonga has about 1000 rooms to offer visitors, mostly rated mid-range, and therefore we are not attracting many top-range tourists.

The new investment by the Tanoa Group from Fiji, in taking over the government's International Dateline Hotel, and recently opening its refurbished accommodation, means that Tonga has more rooms of a higher standard on offer. Most of the tourists who visit Tonga are from New Zealand, followed by Australia, then the USA.

Tonga, however, is clearly a niche tourism market for those who want to experience swimming with the whales, to go out fishing, diving and surfing in isolated locations. 

Whether it was by design or default, this niche tourism market was created by the fact that our Tourism Industry is under-developed. The air services to Tonga are not cheap, and today only three international airlines are serving Tonga, Air New Zealand, Virgin Australia, and Fiji Airways. There are no commercial air services to Tonga on Sundays, and there are growing restrictions on many essential commercial services on Sunday, that is from mid-night Saturday to mid-night Sunday. The six day working week is a major obstacle to the development of the Tourism Industry, and the restriction has over the last thirty years  deprived hundreds, if not thousands, of Tongans jobs in a modern economy.

So the sustainability principles that the UN General Assembly refers to are the "environmental, economic, and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development" and points out a suitable balance must be established between these three dimensions to guarantee its long-term sustainability.

What this means for Tonga, is that to be sustainable we have to change not only our economic attitudes, our environmental attitudes but also our social attitudes.

Freedom of Worship is guaranteed under the Constitution, and keeping the Sabbath Holy should be a right of the individual to decide but not to be dictated by the church and the state.

Sustainable Tourism has been defined by the UN World Tourism Organisation UNMTO, as tourism taking full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts; addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and the communities.

Sustainable tourism development guidelines and management practices are applicable to all forms of tourism in all types of destinations, including mass tourism and the various niche tourism segments.