Tourism Authority Kiribati

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TAK participates in China Trade & Tourism Mission

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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.

 

TAK conducts school tourism awareness program

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The Tourism Authority of Kiribati (TAK) commenced its Tourism Awareness program to all Year 6 Primary Schools on South Tarawa and Betio from 24th March 2023.

This is TAK’s annual program conducted by staff of the Training and Development Division with the aim of educating students about the Tourism Industry and its contribution to the Kiribati economy and the people’s livelihood.

Now that Tourism is part of Year 6 syllabus, TAK ensures that the program included in the presentation relates to the context of Year 6 syllabus extracted from the Curriculum Development Unit of the Ministry of Education (MoE).

The 7 schools visited includes Aratokotoko Primary School, Bareaumai, Sunrise, Tebontemwaneaba, Bikenibeu West, War Memorial, and Abaunamaou.

TAK is grateful to the Ministry of Education (MoE) for endorsing this program and looks forward reaching out to all primary schools across the country.

Monitoring and Evaluation for Abemama Tourism Project

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The Tourism Authority of Kiribati (TAK) recognizes that Monitoring and Evaluation are critical for understanding the effectiveness of any project. Regular assessment allows it to identify successes and areas where improvements can be made and ensures accountability, allowing tourism operators to track progress and taking accountability for performance.

To this effect, TAK together with the Project Management Unit for the LDCF Project – 1 conducted its Abemama Community Based Tourism (CBT) Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) session with participating communities from 13 – 17 March 2023; the island’s first since the Abemama CBT product development project was launched in October 2022.

TAK used this activity to gauge the operations and sustainability of the tourism services provided by the 5 participating communities. Through these sessions, TAK undertook an audit of each product, provided feedback to service providers and mapped out ways to improve as tourism business enterprises. Notable gaps identified through M&E session include limited online connectivity and ease of booking, online payment limitations and whole of island participation in tourism.

In addition to the 5 communities, the Abemama island council, which plays an important role on tourism development on the island, was also consulted on the progress of each CBT initiative.

TAK appreciates that success cannot be achieved overnight and is therefore committed to providing continuous support to communities and organisations engaged in CBT activities.

The 5 communities that offer CBT products in Abemama are Reina village, Baretoa village, Abatiku islet, Ainen Wiikin Abemama, and the Santo Antonio Parish Hotel.

 

TAK benefits from JICA Knowledge Co-Creation Program

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Tourism Authority of Kiribati (TAK) Tourism Officer Marketing & Promotion Ms. Maaba Katirite participated at the Knowledge Co-Creation Program on ‘Tourism Marketing and Promotion for the New Normal’ in Tokyo Japan from 20 January – 08 February 2023.

Organized by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and World Business Association, the Japan in-country program was a follow up to the online training component of the program that took place in November 2022. The four weeks online training had focused on theoretical lessons on tourism products and services delivered by different tourism organization in Japan. Participants were invited to apply similar concepts that best suited their respective destinations.

Ms. Katirite joined participants from Europe, Africa, Caribbean, and the Pacific at the three weeks training program offered in Japan. Through this in-country program, she experienced a number of Japanese tourism products including the Resort Workation Prince Hotel, Auto Camping sites, Matsumoto-ro Hotel, Glamping Site, Geo Park Museum, Peninsula Geopark Site, and the National Museum of Japan.

Through these experiences, Ms. Katirite boarded her understanding on TAK had tourism businesses, their marketing strategies, targets market, customer inclusiveness and how they dealt with COVID-19 pandemic.

Ms. Katirite will share her experiences with local tourism operators and provide support to those that require support with product development, marketing and promotion.

Tourism potential for Tabiteuea South Island

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Located South of Kiribati’s capital Tarawa, Tabiteuea South is an island shrouded in myths and legends, some which date back to the creation of the island. One such myth is the story of Teueanikai (a tree), which legend has it that the branches of the Teueanikai gave way to the formation of the island of Tabiteuea.

Today, the island is divided into two, Tabiteuea Meang (North) and Tabiteuea Maiaki (South). History has it that a bloody massacre at the shores of Tewai village was initiated by the people of the North in attempt to convert the people of Tab South to Christianity. This battle site is today called Buruburu terara which in English translates to bloodshed.

In a quest to learn more about the island’s intriguing history, Tourism Authority of Kiribati (TAK) Assistant Tourism Officer Garstang Bitauea joined a constituency visit delegation to Tabiteuea South led by the Minister for Tourism, Commerce, Industry & Cooperatives (MTCIC), Honourable Booti Nauan.

During the island tour, Mr. Bitauea took the opportunity to undertake tourism awareness across all villages on the island, highlighting the benefits of tourism, and the role of TAK. The program also included a guided tour of all historical sites led by the Unimwane (elderly men) group called Teueanikai. These historical sites were plotted and recorded and will be updated in the island visitor map.

Mr. Bitauea also conducted the Tourism Business Inventory Survey on the island’s 2 accommodation providers, Santo Betero Parish Hotel and Tab-South Island Council Guesthouse. Information gathered will be shared as visitor information and for used for destination promotion.

TAK recognises that there is potential for Tab South to incorporate the island’s myths and legends through storytelling and historical site preservation into their destination product mix. Equally important will be the engagement of the islanders to actively participate in cultural and heritage preservation.

Kiritimati island Tourism Business Inventory Survey (TBIS)

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The Tourism Authority of Kiribati (TAK) conducted its first Tourism Business Inventory Survey for 2023 in Kiritimati Island from 30th January to 3rd February.

TAK took the opportunity during the survey to encourage all Kiritimati Island tourism accommodation and businesses operators to begin preparing their properties and facilities for when commercial flights to the island resumes.

Through the survey, TAK gathered tourism data and information to be used for visitor’s information and marketing purposes.

The survey confirmed that Kiritimati Island has a total of 9 accommodation providers of which 8 were surveyed. These include The Village Hotel. Lagoon View Resort, The Inn Pacific, Little Flower, IKARI House, Dive & Fishing Adventure Lodge and Port Apartment Service. The Captain Cook Hotel was not included in this year survey due to its ongoing maintenance and renovation.

Kiritimati currently has a total of 65 rooms inventory available on the island with 126 beds and 11 units (8 kiakia & 3 huts) with 12 beds.

Beautification Initiative on Kiritimati Island

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The Kiribati island of Kiritimati (Christmas Island) commenced its monthly clean-up on Wednesday 13th February 2023. This initiative is organized by the Kiritimati Clean-up Committee, a working group set up with the aim to improve awareness and campaign on the importance of environmental cleanliness across the island.

Through collaboration, the committee promotes, demonstrates and encourage environmental awareness on littering, waste disposal and pollution, as major concerns to the environment. It functions with the aim to eradicate illegal dumping and waste disposal sites on Kiritimati.

The first clean-up was carried out at the lagoon sides of Tennessee communities from Morokai to Bahai church sites where most of the rubbish and waste is from households living in the area.

TAK Senior Tourism Officer, Tekonaba Teburea says “it was encouraging to witness strong support on this first ever clean-up, and TAK is looking forward to work with the communities and the committee in the next clean-up”.

Teburea added that TAK envisages that Kiritimati Island will be clean and safe Island Paradise for visitors when flights resume to the island.

The clean-up committee includes of representatives from Kiritimati Island communities, Ministry of Tourism, Commerce and Industry Cooperatives (MTCIC), TAK, Ministry of Women, Youth, Sport & Social Affairs (MWYSSA), Wildlife Conservation Unit and is chaired by a representative from the Ministry of Line & Phoenix Island Development (MLPID).

 

South Tarawa Training Need Assessment

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The Training and Development Unit within the Tourism Authority of Kiribati conducted a two days visit to all tourism business properties in South Tarawa to carry out the training need assessment for all employees in the tourism industry that was held on the 25th to 26th of January 2023.

The main purpose of this visit is to discuss and share the training needs assessment form that TAK already come up with and to take all of their specific needs so that TAK can have them and share them with national institutions for their continued assistance and support.

Six of seven tourist accommodations were part of this visit and these are The George Hotel, Betio Lodge, Fema Lodge, Utirerei Hotel, Eniita Lodge, and Tad’s Guest Homestay. Mary’s motel is the only one that has not yet been visited due to some inconvenience caused regard to the schedule raised by the office.

This is the first time that TAK roll out this activity to sit with hotel employees face to face and to take note of their needs with the hope of extending this to all tourism operators in the outer island.

South Tarawa Tourism Business Inventory Survey (TBIS)

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The Tourism Authority of Kiribati (TAK) through its Research and Statistics Division has conducted its survey known as the Tourism Business Inventory Survey (TBIS) from 25th to 26th  January 2023 in South Tarawa.

The survey is also part of TAK’s annual work plan to update the accommodation database to ensure data and information that are collected are up to date, which is the overall main purpose of the visit. The collected data and information include the number of rooms and beds, the number of employees, and contact information to name a few.

The survey results will help determine the training needs of the surveyed properties, it will also help accommodation providers to identify areas that need improvements in terms of marketing and product development needs.

The 7 surveyed properties were The George Hotel, Betio Lodge, Marys’ Motel, Fema Lodge, Utirerei Hotel, Eniita Lodge, and Tads Guesthouse.

The next TBIS will be conducted in North Tarawa in February.

Kiribati Welcomes Fiji’s Prime Minister

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The Prime Minister of Fiji, Honourable Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka, and his delegation visited Kiribati on Friday, the 20th of January 2023.   The high-level delegation received the Minister for Education, Hon Alex Teabo, his wife, several Government dignitaries, and the Kiribati Police Service Brass Band which played the Fiji National Anthem. Upon arrival at the Bonriki International Airport, the Honorable Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka inspected the Guard of Honor.

The delegation visited the Eita maneaba, Tokanuean Auriaria IV where they were accorded a traditional Kiribati welcome.   The Prime Minister also paid a courtesy call to Kiribati’s Head of State and President, H.E Taneti Maamau where the two leaders discussed areas of mutual interest for both countries.  His Excellency Taneti Maamau hosted a welcome function and was joined by his Cabinet Ministers at the Office of the Beretitenti in honor of the Prime Minister and his delegation.

The meeting focused on strengthening bilateral relations between Fiji and Kiribati and discussed the restoration of unity in the Blue Pacific family.

At the meeting, both Leaders acknowledged the strong kinship shared by Fiji and Kiribati, which has been founded on strong cultural identity, mutual respect, and friendship.  The two leaders reaffirmed the need to collectively work in unity and promote regional cooperation as highlighted in the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.

Since the establishment of formal diplomatic relations in 1979, Fiji and Kiribati have enjoyed close friendly relations as members of the Blue Pacific family.

The Tourism Authority of Kiribati recognizes the visit as a great opportunity for Kiribati to elevate its tourism development and marketing initiatives through collaboration.  Fiji is a leading Pacific tourism destination and presents opportunities for capacity-building and marketing partnerships for Kiribati.