A new pilot program hopes to give Vanuatu’s tourism industry a boost - by helping local producers reach more international buyers.
SBS reports high on a mountain outside Port Vila, Steve Nilwo looks over the plantation he manages for South Pacific Sandalwood.
Even in the tropics, where vegetation grows fast, it took six months for his crop to recover from the impact of Cyclone Pam.
“We were expecting to lose about 50 per cent, but we were so lucky to lose less than 10 per cent,” he says.
The crop is a native variety of sandalwood. It is used in skincare and beauty products and sold locally, mainly to international tourists.
The tourism industry generations about 40 per cent of the country’s GDP but it, too, suffered after the Category 5 cyclone hit in March 2015.
Many visitors come by sea, and Vanuatu’s Deputy Prime Minister Joe Natuman says though the cruise ship industry is vitally important, local operators don’t always see a direct benefit.
“A lot of tourists, when they come, they’ve already bought their tickets, their tour from abroad using their credit cards,” he says.
“When they come here, when they do spend, this is what we want to encourage – that more products are available for tourists to spend their money on.”
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is the World Bank's private arm that encourages investment in developing countries.
It has partnered with Australia and New Zealand to help products like cocoa, chocolate and handicrafts reach broader markets.
Dina Nicholas, of the IFC, says the project aims to boost the tourism industry as well as spread its profits to more remote parts of the country – areas that tourists may not often get to - by building up the supply chain and helping local producers get better exposure to international tourists.
“If you think about, how can we tourism, which is one of the largest sectors of economic activity in Vanuatu, how can we actually get tourism to reach the outer islands? This is a great way to do it,” she says.
Ms Nicholas says the IFC made an agreement with P&O to bring local products on board some of its ships. The cruising company brings around 140,000 international tourists each year to Vanuatu.
"Having products on-ship really solves those three problems of access, quarantine and authenticity," she says.
In a bid to meet an expected increase in demand, a group of women are taking part in a handicrafts workshop in Port Vila, learning how to create products from local resources.
Anna Blessing, from the island of Santo, is one of the participants. She hopes the investment in local production may also have another benefit - weaning some local market sellers off the practice of selling mass-produced souvenirs that appear to be locally made.
"Most of the things we sell to the tourists are Chinese-made, so having come to this workshop, wow! It makes a lot of difference with this lady who is teaching us to be creative in using the natural environment," she says.
Mr Nilwo is excited to see his South Pacific Sandalwood products get better exposure to international tourists: “Really, really happy to see that.”
But Tess Newton Cain, the Principal of TCN Pacific Consulting and a long-term resident of Vanuatu, is more skeptical.
“I’m always concerned that it’s not been underpinned by a business case that actually demonstrates that there is a demand, that it can be sold at the right price, that people can make money out of it, it is of sufficient quality, that people will want to pay for it and that it meets the market as the market is,” she says.
“I definitely think that it’s a good idea the tourism sector becomes an internal market for a wider range of goods and services that are produced locally, and this is one aspect of that.
“I don’t think it can be the only aspect, I think there are other avenues to be explored.”
Ms Nicholas admits the project is in the pilot stage, and time will tell if it proves successful for suppliers.
“As far as we know, certainly in this region, this has not been tried before,” she says.
“So we don’t know how well things are going to sell. In the end, we need to have products on-board that people want to buy."