By Tupou Vaipulu Jr.

Two years on, very few tourism businesses have recovered from the impact of the HTHH volcanic eruption and tsunamis that hit Tongatapu on 15 January 2022.

At the time, it was forecast that the disruption to tourism would be felt for at least two years, but now it is clear that it will take much longer for the industry to bounce back after the multiple shocks of recent years. 

"Recovery is rather slow," says Ministry of Tourism CEO, Viliami Takau. But he is determined that Tonga can build back tourism better.

A post-eruption survey at the end of 2022 found that 72 tourism businesses sustained damage estimated at nearly TOP$50 million (USD 20 million) from the tsunamis and ashfall. Of these, 14 accommodation businesses and one restaurant were totally destroyed. Most were located on the sunset coast of Tongatapu where tsunami waves reached 15m.

“These 15 businesses were completely destroyed, of course, all the ones in the west side, [as well as] Pangaimotu, Fāfā and ‘Atata [islands]…These resorts were about 140 plus rooms so that’s 140 plus rooms we don’t have,” he tells Matangi Tonga.

“Accommodation in Tongatapu represented the largest share of tourism businesses affected by the disaster," says Takau.

Today, it is believed that only three out of the 15 are showing signs of rebuilding, and recovery of the other partially damaged infrastructure damaged is slow.

The resorts were the main attractions for tourists in Tongatapu and their destruction means that the industry will take longer to recover from the combined crises of the last three years.

In addition to the tsunami, the ash-fall from the eruption covered an area of at least five square kilometres affecting again Tongatapu, Éua and Ha’apai.

“I think the blanket of ash is a good picture or image of how things were at the time,” he says. The eruption also destroyed the fibre optic cable, leaving parts of the country with no connectivity for a year. It was among a series of major shocks to the local industry.

COVID-19

“COVID was largely a bigger hit than the tsunami," says Takau.

When COVID-19 invaded the country a month after the tsunami, tourism was “relatively non-existent” anymore.

"We were still in a lock-down at that time - a lot of things happened all at once and then just within a month of the tsunami, COVID entered Tonga."

Tourism was already facing major financial losses from the shutdown of inbound tourism for 28 months during the pandemic from 21 March 2020 until 31 July 2022, with losses of international direct tourism receipts estimated at a staggering TOP$455.3 million. The ‘Tonga Tourism Crises Impacts Assessment Report’ of December 2022 based this estimate on visitor spend assumptions for a 2019 baseline.

During this time, Cyclone Harold [2] also damaged at least 50 businesses causing an estimated TOP$16 million in damages to the tourism private sector, when it coincided with a king tide and a supermoon, hitting Tongatapu’s coastlines on 9 April 2020.

Consider that, in 2019 there were about 360 tourism operators fully operational in Tonga, but by the end of 2022 only 181 were still in business.

Looking forward, the recovery recommendations in the Tonga Tourism Crises Impacts Assessment Report will be difficult to achieve, considering that: “Tonga faces the loss of tourism investors who have decided not to rebuild, and confronts a challenging environment for attracting new investors.”

The report says It is critical in the highly competitive international travel environment that Tonga's tourism businesses should aim to restart at a higher level of quality in products and services to maximise visitor satisfaction and grow market share.

Building back

Takau is determined to build back tourism 

"The number one thing that businesses are concerned about is access to finance because that's what they need to recover," he says, "so we try to provide them with that."

"Towards the end of last year, coming out of the tsunami, there were only about 70% of businesses' open.

“We are now getting some new businesses opening up which is good."

Generating new tourism activities for the Kingdom, Takau has new projects lining up for 2024, including creating a new marketing brand for Tonga, developing new tourist packages, welcoming bigger cruise ships and setting up a new museum.

"We'll build back better - we will take it back to its former glory like in the ‘70s," he says.