Thanks to the resumption of post-epidemic flights, the Cook Islands want to attract new European tourists to their paradise beaches. Air service between the Oceanic archipelago west of French Polynesia and Tahiti was restored on Sunday after almost two years of isolation. It was Air Rarotonga that operated this first flight to Avarua, the capital of the Cook Islands, after a nearly two-year layoff for health reasons.
Air traffic had already resumed between the archipelago, home to fewer than 15,000 people, and New Zealand, 3,000km further south and the main issuing market. Of the 172,000 tourists to the Cook Islands in 2019, 76% were Kiwis. But due to a lack of sufficient flights, the chefs received 40,000 visitors in the first six months of 2022 alone. Therefore, they seek to diversify their clientele by introducing tourism. three quarters of their resources. “Before the epidemic, tourists came from Auckland, but also from Tahiti, Los Angeles and Sydney, but since the resumption they come only from New Zealand.explains Temaeva McKenzie, Air Rarotonga’s Marketing Director.
Pending reboot
Closing the sky at the beginning of 2020 has been effective in terms of health. chefs regret only one death related to Covid-19. On the other hand, the blow was heavy for the economy, almost all the residents live directly or indirectly from tourism. From now on, chefs and their dream beaches want to be not a competitor, but a complementary destination of French Polynesia, betting on the tourism trend of “Island Hopping”; these visitors, who go quickly from island to island, sometimes stay in only one. three days on the spot.
Harder to reach for the northern hemisphere and less developed than French Polynesia, the Cook Islands still offer cheaper accommodation, even if they remain expensive, especially due to the remoteness of this area. Northern hemisphere tourists spend more and stay longer than New Zealanders, who tend to travel less during the austral summer between November and March. Therefore, the problem is also to attract Europeans and Americans to the tropics for their winter. This air link will also enable links to be maintained between French Polynesia and the Cook Islands, archipelagos separated by colonial rule but part of the same cultural space, the Polynesian Triangle.
Source: Le Figaro
