The Tourism Authority of Kiribati (TAK) participated in a China Trade & Tourism Mission led by the Minister for Tourism, Commerce, Industry & Cooperatives (MTCIC), Honourable Bootii Nauan from 19 – 27 March 2023.
With the support of the Embassy of China in Tarawa, TAK CEO, Petero Manufolau accompanied the high-level trade delegation on bilateral discussions and visits to key tourism sites in Hainan and Guangdong Provinces.
A key highlight of the mission was the visit to China’s premier beach destination, Sanya, located on the southern tip on Hainan Island in the South China Sea.
The government in Sanya, Hainan province, has laid out 117 key projects to turn the city into a national leading tourist destination with great international influence, and to promote the high-quality development of local and sustainable tourism.
Through this engagement, the delegation were introduced to concepts of marine, agriculture and culture-based tourism for tropical small island destinations where community remains an integral part of sustainable tourism development.
TAK is in the process of developing Kiribati’s sustainable tourism indicators and its sustainable tourism action plan and experiences from this mission have helped highlight new areas of focus for the destination.
China represents an opportunity for organised group travel to Kiribati. With resumption of travel from mainland China, TAK, through its Memorandum of Understanding with the China Tourism Academy (CTA), will soon begin delivering its China Market Ready programme and capacity development initiatives for local tourism operators.
