“Have faith in tourism,” says Commissioner

Evergreen Staff pose with Managing Director Malas (at right, with King seen behind him) handing over uniform to NTO Manager Kalpoi while Poilapa displays second set of uniform with Department of Trade representative Donald Pelam (at left)

“Have faith in tourism that we will break through into the Korean Market (at the Mini Expo in South Korea)”.
The confident statement was made by the Commissioner of Expo for the Pacific and General Manager of National Tourism Office, Linda Kalpoi to the local tourism industry after receiving two sets of Expo uniforms from Evergreen Managing Director, Philip Malas at Mooring Hotel two days ago.
Evergreen is the only Tour Company that is representing all other tour operators at the Mini Expo in Korea and it has sponsored the uniform for the Vanuatu Booth operators. The Expo is opening on Saturday this week and closes in August.
The Commissioner said, “We can only break through if we all work as a team and a strong front line to showcase Vanuatu as the most beautiful and friendliest place in the Pacific for anyone from Asia to come to enjoy their holiday here”.
“I am confident that once we have broken through then we should be able to have direct connection with Asia through airline connections and we are talking about the next three years or so”.

Malas said Evergreens current connection with Korea is linked to an agent in Australia. “He receives over 6,000 Korean tourists in one year and some of them get booked through us at Evergreen to visit Vanuatu and with the existing package that we have with the agent, we look forward to increasing the number of tourists as a result of the Expo in Korea”, he said.
For Evergreen Sales and Marketing Manager Julia King, attending the Mini Expo in Korea is going to be the furthest that the company has progressed into the global tourism industry. “For us it is a good thing because the Vanuatu Tourism Office has worked well in advance to get Nick Isaacher who was present at the World Expo in Shanghai before last year, and now he is already in Karea to have the ground work done to prepare the Vanuatu Booth for our participation”, she said.

“In fact we have prepared all our brochures and banners and everything else for the opening of the Mini Expo this Saturday”.
The company Event Coordinator Paul Poilapa is leaving for Korea tomorrow. He is young and excited to see and learn from the Expo in Korea.
He attended a training course for tour guides of developing countries in Beijing last year and he wants to use the opportunity to compare trends in Korea and China and see how Vanuatu can benefit from the Korean experience.

Managing Director of Evergreen Philip Malas said they were delighted to sponsor the uniform for the Vanuatu Booth in the form of “destination marketing”.
Asked how he believes his company is going to benefit from the Mini Expo he replied, “We already have connections with the Korean tourist market but it is our belief that this Expo is going to open up the market even more especially here in Vanuatu where at present, it is our low season and it is cold over there in Korea and their tourists want to get out to enjoy themselves in warmer climate and we want to entice them to choose to visit Vanuatu."