Slow response from

Cover Stories

Slow response from tourism bureaus

Special Survey

By David North

HOW quickly and how well do government-run tourism bureaus re spond to written tourist inquiries? In order to find out we sent a one-page inquiry to 27 island tourist bureaus in the Pacific, with all the inquiries being airmailed on the same day (Nov. 5, 1993), from the same post office on America’s East Coast.

How well did they respond? Six weeks later a majority of the bureaus simply had not responded to the inquiries. The responses from the 13 who did reply ranged from splendid and charming to misinformed.

If there is any pattern to the responses, it is that small islands answered much more quickly than big ones. We had replies for Lord Howe, Pitcairn, Norfolk, Easter Island and Tokelau, for instance, but none from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Solomons or Vanuatu.

The language of the inquiry, English, did not seem to matter. We heard from both of the Spanish-language islands (Galapagos and Easter), from one of the three French-speaking jurisdictions (Ta hiti), and from about half of the English speaking ones. The only reply not in English was a nice note in Spanish from Easter Island.

The reply from Galapagos came by registered mail for some reason. I had to sign a receipt for it when the postman brought it to the door.

The design of the survey was straight forward. Identical letters were sent to 27 government-run tourism bureaus. In most instances we addressed them in the same way, such as “Director, Tourist Bureau, c/o Office of the Prime Minister ...”

Where we had street addresses for tourist bureaus we did not use them, to maintain a level playing field.

In a few instances when we knew or suspected that such inquiries were

How Vast Do Government Tourist Bureaus React to Tourist Inquiries? (responses to letters airmailed from u.S. on Nov. 5, 1993)

The following Islands had not responded six weeks later (Dec. 17, '93); FSM, Fiji, Guam, Kiribati, Marshalls, New Caledonia, Palau, P-NG, Niue, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Wallis & Futuna.

handled off-island (eg. Pitcairn, Tokelau,

Galapagos) we sent the letters to another location which we thought would be appropriate (the governor of Pitcairn Island is also the British High Com missioner in New Zealand, so he got that

inquiry).

Each of the one-page letters asked three questions does one drive on the right or the left side of the road? Would my US driver’s licence suffice for a few days on the island? and, if I needed a new driver’s licence, how much would it cost?

Blanks were left on the letter, so the respondent could check off the answers and send it back to me.

I included my fax number, as well as

my address and suggested that the fax be used. I said that my wife and I were planning a Pacific islands trip, and needed the information requested before we would complete our plans. The strong implication was that we were likely visitors to the island in question.

Deliberately, there was no mention of my PIM connection, on the grounds that we wanted to test how a government-run tourist bureau would respond to a routine request for information from a

potential tourist.

As the chart shows, we received responses from 13 bureaus, shown on the chart but not from 14 others, listed at the bottom of the chart. While it would be

cheeky (or imperialistic) for

Tourist Bureau (in order of reply) Reply Received Fax or Mail?

Comments (B - brochure rec'd) Northern Marianas 11/13 Fax first reply, B later Hawaii 11/15 Mall first brochures to arrive Western Samoa 11/18 Fax Nauru 11/21 Fax good letter, 45-cent driver's license Lord Howe 11/21 Fax B later Pitcairn 11/22 Mail 30-cent driver's license, B American Samoa 11/23 Fax Norfolk Island 11/24 Fax B later Cook Islands 11/27 Mall B, Envelope came with nice $6 postage stamp Johnston Atoll (US military base) 11/27 Mall The colonel wrote: "offloial-buslnessonly Island 11 Easter Island 12/1 Mail Letter In Spanish, pretty stamps, B French Polynesia 12/6 Fax Note In English, B later GalApagos 12/6 Mail Registered mall, B Tokelau 12/13 Hall From Apia office, B