Canada 3000

comes to the Cooks

When the very rich Richard Branson of Virgin Records want ed to branch out into air travel, he asked Angus Kinnear how to go about it. Kinnear, founding President of Canada 3000, got Branson across the table and their informal talk led to the start of Virgin Airlines.

At least that’s the story behind the beginnings of Virgin Airlines as told by Canada 3000 Product Vice President Yehudi Altman. Canada 3000 is expanding its South Pacific destinations and November will see flights into Rarotonga in the Cook Islands for an initial five months. The first flight by the airline char ter company to Rarotonga is scheduled for November 5 running until April, the begin ning of Canada’s summer when “its extremely hard to get Canadians to travel,” says Altman. But the long-term intent is to fly to Rarotonga all year around.

The prospect of more visitors will have the Cooks government and the tourism industry rubbing their hands in glee at the thought of an anticipated $2.5 million Canada 3000 passengers will inject into the

local community during its first five months of operations there. Tourism Cook Islands Chief Executive To Tuakeu- Lindsay says this would be “really good for the Cooks if it can be maintained” pro viding easier links with North America, where the biggest number of visitors to the Cooks come from. Canada 3000 will fly into Rarotonga every Thursday, going on to New Zealand and turning around the same day back to Rarotonga. The commer cial sector can expect around 120 “middle to upper bracket” visitors getting off in Rarotonga weekly for an average 11 days stay in Rarotonga and Aitutaki. Because of government’s current agreement with Air New Zealand, locals won’t be able to take advantage of Canada 3000 flights to

Auckland and vice versa, says Altman.

Canada 3000 will be spending “upwards of $CD250,000 for advertising the Cook Islands destination in Canada,” says Altman. The company will be looking to Tourism Cook Islands for “minor sup port, about NZ$4O,OOO - $50,000” to assist with the campaign.

Canada 3000 is in its third year of fly ing charters to Fiji, an arrangement that former head of the Cook Islands Tourist Authority Chris Wong was “instrumental in setting up”. Wong has recently been re appointed to Tourism Cook Islands as director of marketing. Canada 3000 has been operating for ten years and carries over 2.5 million passengers from 22 coun tries around the world. It has 15 aircraft and boasts the “most modem aircraft fleet in Canada”. The Cook Islands was chosen as an additional Pacific destination follow ing a visit to Rarotonga by Canada 3000 Holiday Division President David Hardouin and his wife over a year ago.

“They fell in love with the place and people,” says Yehudi Altman. And if things work according to plan, this place and peo ple can expect a much welcome lift in the

economy. I