Heavenly bodies

THE Cook Islands tourist promotion has taken to the roads of Australia with a nationwide tour during 1990 to take their message to the people.

The Roadshow will travel nearly 75,000 kilometres during the year through ev ery state and territory of Australia, covering all capital and provincial cities down to the small country towns.

The group plan to visit all major coun try travel shows and as many travel agents as possible along the way. The Roadshow is comprised of some of the most talented dancers from the Cook Is lands including Mereana Taruia, Terry Joseph, Adrianne Koe Quarter, Cassan dra Taruia, Ruru-Taura Tautateopu,

Shepherd Lockingham, Kura Strickland

Jnr and Kathy Strickland.

They are completely self-contained on their tour and travel in a fully-equipped Toyota Coaster mobile home with a Toyota Seca car carried on a trailer be hind the mobile home.

When they reach each town, the mobile home converts into a mobile showroom to promote tourism with a foldout awning, videos and exciting point of sale posters which show the out standing tourist attractions of the Cooks.

The Toyota Seca then provides the group with mobility to visit various diffe rent locations in the town. Both vehicles are highly identifiable and the Toyota

Coaster has signs and palm trees painted on the sides. They carry Cook Island

registration plates.

The Cook Islands slogan Visit Heaven while you ’ re still on Earth is strongly fea tured.

The Cook Islands Consul in Sydney, Richard Barton, said the impact of the Cook Islanders in the country centres that have been visited had been sensa tional. “We have literally stopped the traffic in many towns and the local media has gone overboard with extensive coverage, including radio interviews o’f twenty minutes plus,” he said. “The en quiry rate so far from interested tourists has been most encouraging and we are extremely confident that our innovative promotional approach will prove to be an absolute winner. We have already re ceived enquiries from other tourist des tinations asking us pointed questions ab out how we have implemented the tour,”

The leader of the Roadshow dance group, Mereana Tariua, is an outstand ing dancer who has danced in Spain, Portugal, Canada and the United States She last performed in Australia at the 1987 Moomba Festival in Melbourne.

Says Taruia: “We are excited that we are visiting the country areas of Australia to meet the people from rural areas, as well as performing in the capital cities. □

Heavenly bodies: the Cook Island dancers in front of the Toyota Coaster and Toyota Seca which are currently being used in their national Roadshow tour of Australia.