03 October 2019:
Tourism Authority of Kiribati (TAK) was voted to the chairmanship role of the Small Island States & (SIST) Tourism Subcommittee at the Pacific Tourism Organisation (formerly the South Pacific Tourism Organisation) Board of Directors meeting in Niue on Thursday 03 October 2019.
Members of SIST includes American Samoa, Niue, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Kiribati, Tokelau and Wallis & Futuna.
The primary role of the subcommittee is to champion the tourism development priorities of the SIST’s within PTO as most of them fall into the lower end of the tourism spectrum in the Pacific.
TAK is chair of SIST Tourism Subcommittee
Tourism Authority of Kiribati
The SIST subcommittee meeting noted transport/connectivity, capacity building, planning, proposal writing, contract writing, business writing, information sharing and climate change adaptation & resilience as the key tourism development priorities for its members.
The Pacific Island Forum Leaders Conference in Tuvalu listed climate change, air and sea transportation, health & marine as their key priorities for the region. Whilst tourism was not specifically identified as a priority area, SIST acknowledged that tourism cuts through these 4 priority areas. It therefore believes that there is a need for stronger push for tourism and has tasked the PTO secretariat to find more information of SIS Development Fund and SIS Roadmap for Accelerating Development.
The Tourism Authority of Kiribati’s engagement in such an important working committee reflects its mission of becoming an active partner to tourism development in the Pacific
