Boosting Domestic Tourism Should Be the Focus Amidst COVID-19 Hit Says Tuamoto

BY TAVAKE SIMON HANA’AROA

THE Tourism Industry around the globe has drastically hit by the COVID-19 that left tourism operators to shut off businesses and hotels are empty or temporarily closed.

To cushion the COVID-19 blow, Domestic tourism has seen as an ideal opportunity according to international observers.

Speaking to Tourism Media Solomon, Chief Executive Officer of Tourism Solomons, the marketing arm of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism Josefa Tuamoto highlighted that in order for the local tourism sector to keep afloat during this crisis is to focus on domestic tourism.

He said in the past tourism industries around the world had faced similar situations during such pandemics, 2002 – 2004 SARS outbreak for instance, but are manage to bounce back after everything was back to normal.

Similarly for Solomon Islands, Tuamoto believed tourism operators will come back aggressively when the borders are open.

“The focus now in the immediate term is to look at domestic tourism focusing more on domestic travel.

“When I say domestic travel I mean business travels and visiting relatives domestically.

“Those are the things that will sustain us for the short term and when the borders open then we will aggressively target overseas people,” Mr. Tuamoto said.

He said that there are things that can happened at any time but tourism is here to stay but said that it is about being smart in the immediate term to keep the industry alive.

He said the survivability depends on the people itself.

“Despite the calamity that we are facing, we always come out better on the other side. It is the strength and the will of the people to come out.

He continued; “being COVID free is one of the biggest strength that we have and we should not go out quiet about it but rather be proud about it.

“We should be thankful to our government for the restrictions they made had allowed us to be here today,” he said.