Plan for industry turbulence needed

LIKE every body else in the Vanuatu tourism busi ness, Air Caledonia

International had a bonanza year in 1990. With 35,000 visitors, more than double the previous year, Vanuatu enjoyed its best year since 1983, But, admits the airline’s resident manager Joseph Laloyer, this year it will be tougher. Australians comprise more than 80 per cent of tourists, and deregulation of the airlines industry, growing recession and alternative

cheaper packages there are encouraging

them to travel to places like Bali or Hawaii, or at home.

Another setback for this Noumea based carrier is a series of agreements in March with the Vanuatu government redefining traffic rights between New Caledonia and Vanuatu, giving a share of the market to Air Vanuatu.

Until the new service introduced last month, the airline had been operating four 727 flights a week out of Vila. But now its capacity has been restricted under the new agreement.

Air Caledonie plans a new target. It will redevelop a New Caledonian market to Vila, offering attractive weekend packages. The airline hopes to lure the tourists it had in the early 1980 s.

“It won't be the caldoche themselves so much,” says Laloyer. “It will be the French metros out for three-year contracts in New .Oaledonie the doctors, engineers, and teachers who want to see as much of the South Pacific as they can while they’re here.”

Laloyer admits the market for tourists from New Caledonia has been fickle at times, depending on relations between France and Vanuatu. A ni-Vanuatu

himself and a former foreign affairs official, the 35-year-old Laloyer has astutely weathered the storms.

“We’ve had several drop-offs since 1982-84,” he says. “And then we had the damage to the hotel industry caused by Cyclone Uma in 1985. Then in 1988 the Vanuatu government imposed visas on anybody visiting from New Caledonia.

The New Caledonia market has been a difficult one ever since independence with lots of ups and downs.

“But now ... it is settling down and it is a good time to launch this market again. After all, coming to Vila for the weekend is almost the same as going to the Isle of Pines.

“The biggest attractions here are the vegetation — it is so different from in

New Caledonia, the friendliness of the people, the variety of the islands and customs and how people live, and it is

duty-free.”

But, says Laloyer, Vanuatu has to make some hard decisions about the future of tourism. “The government says we need more flights, but the hotels are full already. If the airlines put on more flights there’ll be no room to stay.”

Laloyer believes more involvement and consultation with everybody in the tourist industry is needed to prepare a strategy for the future.

“We were lucky last year that the Australian Government provided the ASS million fund to market Vanuatu as a destination. But the trouble is that while the government gains funds out of the promotion of Vanuatu, not enough is being put back into the industry.”

More thought should be given to a greater variety of accommodation and joint planning. “Vanuatu used to be a reasonably cheap destination for families.

Not any more; now it is a destination for couples or single people. Families are being attracted to the Cook Islands, Fiji and Noumea.

“At present the tendency is for each company or hotel to do their own thing.

Little is done jointly for planning ahead.

Unless we have a different approach we’ll go backwards.”

He also warns that the ni-Vanuatu people should be involved in the indus try. “Tourism benefits to the local people are very limited. Landowners have imposed a 1200-vatu toll fee on the road to the volcano; there has been a debate on who should be paying the Pentecost dive organisers; and there has been trouble with access to some beaches, “These are signs of the discontent.

Unless we put priority into education and involvement of the local people in tourism, the frustrations will grow ” □

Laloyer: urging a rethink of the future