Why Tourism?

Over the years many people have assumed and probably correctly given the time and information available and funding by donors that Agriculture is the backbone of our economy. We spent considerable time and effort and money with simala, banana, taro, passionfruit, limes, and many other agricultural schemes which have not always been successful if success is measured in terms of continuity today. In terms if longevity, taro has outlasted all else but thats probably more a function of its traditional importance rather than the fact that growers are making money from it.

Now its vanilla and nonu and a great deal of study-UN consultant visted, reviewed, analysed and then recommended we plant vanilla.

Noni was something which we agreed with Reef to have a JV with.

I am an agriculturalist by profession and training and I am convinced given proper management and marketting, both crops will do well.

However over the past year or so I have come to the realisation that despite all our efforts in Agric/Hort nothing has worked. I am still allowing time for Vanilla and nonu to come right but we shall see.

So to tourism and fish. Fish is really a no brainer when you look at the map and realise what a big fish farm we have and own!! Just a matter of finding out the best way to maximise our returns from it. We will figure it out and we will have overseas partners to help one way or another. Research is being done at present and there are tow approaches being looked at-farming with a JV partner such as Reef, or lease long term to a country-this can also be used to leverage loans etc.

Tourism is however the best short and long term economic driver we have at present. There are four things we must have which will help

Guarenteed long term air service with good capacity to grow in total seats and frequency of services.

Good accomodation capacity which we must develop

Good marketting and promotions

Good infrastructure

The problems we have at present includes some infrastructure limitations and lack of accomodation.

It has been my focus to try and build the accomodation and ensure infrastructue is available, and reliable. We need better and cheaper power supply, GSM mobile phones, excellent internet, good reliable water, good airport and port and a reliable workforce available and accessable land, willing Niuean partners etc.

I think we can all see where we are short at present in power, port, and telecoms.

Accomodation is langusihing because we are unable to get access to capital/funds and some good business links. Land is also often cited as being difficult but we can overcome these I believe

Trevor Hall has written an excellent business report and we have endorsed it. But there are also a few mistakes which we will correct as we go along. I must say here that endorsing a report does not mean that we have agreed without question everything that has been written in the report. There will still be some hard negotiations that will take place with certain sections of the report. In my discussions with McCully when he asked the question as to acceptance of recommendations without any questions on our part, my simple answer is that I have never in my private sector life agreed without question any initial proposal!!!
The report appears to seek a perfect business environment which must be in place before anything could or would happen.
What I have said is that we may not have a perfect business environment but we have sufficient available business opportunities available with land which we can improve on.
There is no perfect system anywhere including NZ. But if we had no business environment then Matavai would not have been built and Namukulu Motels would not have happened and sold either.

Tourism can be very quickly mobilised if we have the financial resources to start building. What I have found is that NZ has not shared the same vision we have and my own belief at present is that if the Trevor Hall plans do not work we would have lost another 2 years with dealings with NZ officials making a total of 8 years.

We need a plan B, which is what I am working on at present. There is a degree of scepticism when I talk about a plan B but I do not beileve we should remain one dimensional at all in our aspirations.

Time will tell.

The business plan for tourism will take advantage of our whales, diving, crystal clear waters, $$NZD, short distnace from NZ and Aussie, nice/great people, Taoga Niue etc

It will also enable us to grow for local consumption and not bother too much about exporting and the costs and risks involved.

The areas I believe people should look to invest in is in accomodation, tours, services, auxilliary businesses etc. Start small and study and analyse what you want to do. Dont rush into big plans

Land for all of us is free but make sure family are not a problem.

I can see us build numbers up from the current 4000/year to 10,000 and then 20,000 reasonably quickly-3-5 yrs if we devote the resources to it.

It should be private sector driven and managed. Governments role will be to ensure an enabling environment and support.

Benefits to government will include jobs, increase revenues and more viability in business opportunities.