‘Everyone’s business’ – Vanuatu reopens to tourists

Vanuatu reopened to tourists on July 1, but there is still some work to do to reopen properties that have been shuttered for two years and fill frontline tourism positions. 

Virgin Australia says it will resume its direct service from Brisbane to Port Vila in March next year. Solomon Airlines resumed flights on August 2. Fiji Airways began flights to Vanuatu on July 4, flying twice a week between Nadi and Port Vila, and connecting Vanuatu with long-haul source markets, including North America, Europe and Asia. In 2019 alone, Fiji Airways uplifted over 38,000 passengers from Fiji to Vanuatu.

“Aviation connectivity has been a key driver to our booming tourism industry prior to COVID-19, and we have established strong partnerships with our aviation stakeholders. Now it’s time to reconnect,” said Vanuatu Tourism Office CEO, Adela Issachar Aru.

At the Vanuatu Tourism Office’s (VTO) downtown information centre, Angelina Songi advises on day trips around Efate. She started working for the VTO during the lockdowns, after training as a civil engineer.

Songi’s initial role was as a local tourism marketing officer, helping tourism businesses connect with the domestic market during border closures. Songi says when the local tourism campaign started, the mindset was that tourism was something that that came “from outside, internationally.”

However she says there was a change in attitude as the campaign progressed: “And slowly, we started to see locals engage in the tourism business. What we tell them is that tourism is everyone’s business. It puts food on the table because a lot of us in Vanuatu depend on the tourism industry.”

Pre-COVID, tourism accounted for 48% of Vanuatu’s GDP, according to statistics from the World Travel and Tourism Council. This included people involved in secondary industries and suppliers such as Martha Malosu, who sat behind a basket-filled table, selling handicrafts at the recent Forum Economic Ministers meeting in Port Vila.

She said makers and vendors survived the lockdowns due to demand created by remittances and local customers. “The RSE [Recognised Seasonal Employers]workers helped a lot. Whatever money they earn, they send back to the families, and the families come shop with us. That’s where the recycling of the finance is.”

Yet despite steady local sales, some vendors had to vacate the handicraft market on Port Vila’s waterfront.

“Some of the members had to leave because they cannot afford to pay their rents, while some of us are still going on by helping each other. We bring food from home from each of the households and then we share food amongst each other, and we support each other with finance,” Malosu said.

“We don’t compete with mamas at the markets or the same products,” said Dalida Borlosa as she stood behind the counter at Pandanus, a store that takes a different approach to handicrafts by marrying traditional techniques with contemporary designs.

COVID lockdowns saw Pandanus close for three months, and open sporadically during the pandemic. It was trading four days a week when we visited, with tourists starting to return to shop for homewares, baskets, jewelry and other keepsakes.

Borlosa used the lockdowns to develop new products (Health Ministry-approved facemasks, skirts) and improve her own skills. “COVID-19 pushed me. I studied a little bit about business. I wanted this opportunity to skill up.”

Borlosa also received funding and was able to buy machines “and help other mamas to give them confidence so that they can do something else, and not just depend on what they already have.” 

Not quite open

A day-trip with tour guide Harriet Yatipu illustrated another challenge facing the industry.

Pointing to various attractions and properties lining the main round-island road, she punctuated her story-telling with the frequent observation, “that one’s still closed” and “that one’s not open yet”.  Some property owners have been away from the country since the pandemic started and while they are trickling back and renovation work was evident at many locations, it will take a while for many properties to be open again.

Yatipu herself diversified into kava sales during the pandemic, mixing grog and using her minibus to make home deliveries. She now operates windows at two popular nakamals, one across from the parliament complex and the other close to Port Vila resorts. Even when the tourists come back in numbers, cruise ships return and her tour business picks up, Yatipu intends to keep her kava business going.

Angelina Songi says the tourists she has met at the VTO centre have been patient.

“They see that we’ve been trying our best to get the businesses back. So when some places that they wish to go to are closed, they understand the situation.”

Staff shortages have also been a problem, something that the VTO had anticipated with the ramping up of the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) program, and migration of former tourism workers to offshore or interisland opportunities. The VTO responded by setting up a tourism help desk, to match job seekers and people with particular skills, with tourism businesses needing staff.

Songi says even as tourism gains momentum,  the potential of the local market should not be forgotten.

“We decided that this is something that we shouldn’t stop doing. So we decided to put that into organisation structure and that is something that will be ongoing.  Even though our borders are open, we will still be marketing to the domestic market.”

Quarantine in hands of communities

The opening of Vanuatu’s borders on July 1 saw the National COVID-19 Task Force hand over the quarantining of all returning ni-Vanuatu seasonal workers from Australia and New Zealand to the chiefs in their communities throughout the country. 

All returnees may be quarantined for three days or more according to the governance wisdom of each village. Whether the returnees should pay any fee to the Chief’s Council also remains the discretion of each Council.

A special team comprising of representatives of the Vanuatu Christian Councils, Malvatumauri Council of Chiefs, health, trade, tourism and industry sectors, toured all six provinces of the country to explain the changes to the quarantine requirements.

While advising the public of what lifting the lockdown will mean at community and village level in the provinces, the Team says hand washing and social distancing protocols will continue in all rural quarantine facilities.

Tafea Province’s most isolated island of Futuna, took the lead by identifying an empty house to quarantine all new arrivals for three days. 

-Len Garae