The Pacific's largest and premier tourism event will be held at the Gold Coast in Australia from May 20-21 next year.
South Pacific Tourism Organisation marketing manager Alisi Lutu said the event would continue to provide a platform for international travel agents and Pacific Island destinations tourism operators to conduct business-to-business meetings and exchanges.
Lutu made the announcement during a press conference in Suva to announce the dates for the 2016 South Pacific Tourism Exchange.
“This is really to grow more visitor arrivals, more traffic into the region as well as increasing the awareness of our beautiful and unique Pacific Island destinations in the international tourism market,” she said.
“We want to make sure we strengthen the South Pacific as a brand, especially in the international market, and ensuring that we are reaffirming in the mindset of our international travel market, the media and consumers that the Pacific presents one of the best holiday destinations for them. We want to motivate consumers to aspire to travel to the Pacific.”
Lutu said they were able to run two SPTE events, with the inaugural one in Auckland, New Zealand last year and the second one in Melbourne, Australia this year. She said the SPTE event would take place after the Australian Tourism Exchange.
“It is strategic in that the ATE is going to be held at the Gold Coast. We are happy to run this event at international level and will continue to drive more business, tourism business, to the islands,” Lutu said.
Meanwhile, South Pacific Tourism Organisation is working with the Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority to attract travel agents to the online specialist program and assist the authority with increasing awareness about the "A Million Different Journeys" destination.
To this effect, travel agents who registered and completed the South Pacific specialist program by October 26 this year would go into the draw to win an eight-night holiday in PNG.
The European Union South Pacific specialist program is an online training module that teaches travel agents globally about selling South Pacific holidays and eventually become a South Pacific specialist.
The PNG holiday prize includes a three nights' stay at Nusa Island Retreat, a three nights' stay at Tawali Leisure and Dive Resort and a two nights' stay at Airway Hotel.
SPTO chief executive officer Ilisoni Vuidreketi said the incentive was a great collaboration between the SPTO, private sector members and the authority to increase travel agents product knowledge of PNG and other Pacific Islands.
“We are very pleased to be able to offer this fantastic incentive prize and we are grateful to our private sector members and the PNTTPA for their partnership in carrying out our program," he said in a statement.
“We find that a collaborative approach to marketing our region with the national tourism offices and our private sector partners to lure more visitors to our shores works for us.”
He said the online specialist program was aimed at helping travel agents to increase their confidence and ability to sell the South Pacific with passion and loyalty.
According to SPTO, there are 387 South Pacific specialists worldwide so far.