TOURISM UPDATES
This week the Tourism Crisis Response & Recovery Plan’s Project Manager, Laurana Rakau along with the Communications Implementation Team Leader, Willie Tapasei and Dr. Basil Leodoro, representing the Health Pillar from the Ministry of Health, visited the Vanuatu National University (VNU) to present the recovery plan to the Years One to Three tourism students who represent the future of Vanuatu tourism as entrepreneurs, managers and staff.
The team explained how the Tourism Crisis Response & Recovery Plan identifies five key outcomes that need to be achieved to attain the goal of protecting safety and livelihoods and facilitate economic recovery through the restoration of international access and the re-start of tourism.
The students were very keen to understand these five pillars. Pillar one is ‘health’ which is the safeguarding of the health of citizens, workers, residents, and visitors. This is to enable Vanuatu to safely accept the movement of people from countries that have zero or minimal cases of COVID-19, and to have confidence in the domestic public health systems and facilities.
Pillar two is ‘access’ and the international movement of people. Before this can happen, appropriate and effective measures need to be in place for the transport sector post COVID-19 including airlines, aviation, cruise, and the other transport providers.
Pillar three is to ensure that businesses are ready. They need to be financially viable, appropriately supported, and ready to launch their products. Businesses will be trained on how to apply the new health and safety procedures using the ‘Vanuatu Guidelines for Safe Businesses Operations (SBO) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic’.
Pillar four is ‘marketing’ which ensures the international demand for Vanuatu tourism. It is important to stay in the minds of Vanuatu’s potential visitors for when they are ready to start travelling again. The last and fifth pillar is Community Communications which is across all the Provinces to provide guidance and confidence in the recovery plan and the changes taking place. It is also to communicate to businesses and people to be prepared and to provide public health information and messages.
The students asked plenty of questions about this proactive approach and were satisfied with the answers and delivery of the recovery plan. It was fantastic to see their confidence and the team look forward to visiting them again in future months.
“It has been an interesting journey so far. Especially noting the different levels of understanding from the many conversations we have been having with various stakeholders. This has made us realise the need for multiple approaches to ensure correct and consistent messaging that will help with the overall recovery effort” says Laurana Rakau.
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