Winning Back the North American Market

This initiative was greatly appreciated by the North American tour operators, as “we were the first destination to travel to meet our partners in the last year and a half. It was the first event they had attended in all that time, working from home”, explains Jean-Marc MOCELLIN, who led the Tahiti Tourisme delegation.

The aim of the trip was to take stock of the situation, and to reassure people about the health and tourism prospects for Tahiti Et Ses Îles, in order to boost our leading tourist-sending market (North America: 50% of arrivals since the start of 2021 and historically 41% in the pre-covid period). It was important to answer tour operators’ questions and gather their advice and feedback on the past 18 months, notably during a Brainstorming session in Los Angeles, which was also attended by Maïlee FAUGERAT, Chairwoman of Tahiti Tourisme ‘s Board of Directors, and Hironui JOHNSTON, Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Tourism.

It was also an opportunity to present the country’s orientations in terms of tourism development (cruise strategy, Fāri’ira’a Manihini 2025) and Tahiti Tourisme’s new initiatives, and to reaffirm Tahiti Tourisme’s unfailing support while thanking them for their commitment to the destination.

“Tour operators have confirmed that Tahiti & Her Islands continues to attract North American customers. The trend observed following the reopening of the borders last May was very positive, and despite the recent restrictions on travel within its territory, Tahiti & Her Islands has continued to welcome North American travellers, and cancellations have been much lower than those feared by tour operators. The outlook for 2022 is positive, and they hope to return to sales levels similar to the pre-Covid years,” says Gina BUNTON, Director of International Operations at Tahiti Tourisme.

A number of positive points were raised at all these meetings, including the fact that everyone expressed their gratitude to the destination, to Tahiti Tourisme and to the Polynesian tourism industry as a whole. Indeed, the fact that Tahiti Et Ses Îles remains open to the North American market has enabled them to continue selling, at a time when many other destinations were closed. “Furthermore, the constant communication efforts made by Tahiti Tourisme regarding entry and stay conditions and restrictions in force, as well as the assistance provided to travel agents to help their customers through the consecutive changes in entry protocol to French Polynesia, have been praised by all our partners,” said Rogella DOOM, Regional Manager for North America / Asia-Pacific at Tahiti Tourisme.

They also addressed the issue of compulsory vaccination for Polynesian tourism professionals, which is still a key expectation of North American customers when it comes to organising trips and is perceived as a guarantee of safety.

“Visitors don’t want to be exposed to the risk of being contaminated and finding themselves stuck in Tahiti for 10 days. As for travel agents, they risk being sued by their clients for sending them to a destination, accommodation or activity where they may have caughtthe covid-19 virus. As a result, tour operators and travel agents will gradually be working only with service providers whose employees have been vaccinated and who obviously comply with the protocols“, stresses Jean-Marc MOCELLIN.

It is against this backdrop that the Safety Ambassadorprogramme presented by Tahiti Tourisme was well received by all the tour operators we met during this mission. The scheme, which highlights the destination’s commitment to passenger health safety, will make it easier to select the Polynesian service providers with whom they will be working in the future.

The new scheme is being launched in two stages. Firstly, Polynesian tourism professionals are invited to sign up to the programme free of charge. The membership campaign was launched on September 23 and to date more than a hundred players have signed up (inbound travel agencies, airlines, accommodation and activity providers).Tahiti Tourisme is also currently organising information sessions for the Polynesian tourism industry.

In a second phase, an international communication campaign will be launched as soon as the health situation allows. The aim will be to publicise the programme to potential visitors and the distribution network, and to encourage them to book in complete safety with tourism service providers who comply with the conditions of the “Safety Ambassador” programme. This will encourage a resumption of bookings in the last quarter of 2021 and a relaunch in the first half of 2022.

In this context, and in order to reassure the general public as well as the distribution network about the travel conditions for their customers, both in terms of vaccinating tourism staff and maintaining barrier gestures, the eductours for tour operators, travel agents and the international media that we are inviting to Tahiti Et Ses Îles will be organised as a priority with members of the Safety Ambassadors programme.

During the trip, Tahiti Tourisme also held one-to-one meetings with partners such as Cruise Connection Canada in Vancouver, Costco Travel in Seattle, Air Tahiti Nui in Los Angeles and Atout France in Montreal.

Following on from this operation on the North American market, Tahiti Tourisme is preparing a mission with the same objectives, to be carried out shortly on the European market.