Over 2,000 tourism permits expected in 2018

The Department of Tourism, which helps with empowering and growing ni-Vanuatu participation in the tourism business, issued 1,788 tourism permits to operators in 2017. This was revealed by Donald Pelam, the Acting Director of the Department of Tourism.

He said in 2016 and 2015 the department issued 1,296 permits. There’s been an increase of 492 permits in 2017. “This year we are looking at a target of over 2,000 tourism permits issued,” Mr. Pelam added. These permits are issued to businesses including handicraft sellers, transport operators, bungalow operators and many more.

“A system, we are using now in collaboration with the Department of Customs to provide strict adherence to the rules of tourism standards is that anyone needing a tourism license must first contact the Department of Tourism who will check for compliance according set requirements under the dedicated tourism standard structure.

“This is to ensure the operators’ businesses are of a relevant standard. Big hotels have their own standards. But the departments must ensure that with the local tourism businesses, tourists get value for money from their patronage,” Mr. Pelam continued.

“Sometimes we provide conditional permits with a checklist of conditions to meet before a permit is given.:

At Mitah custom village, at Rentabau on Efate recently, a Conditional Permit was given by the Acting Director of the Tourism Department to the operator, John Martin, who officers of the department had been working with to help him development the village and start receiving tourists. And once he meets all the requirements given in a minimum standard for the business, then the permit is given.

Department of Tourism was created to assist local operations in the provinces and in Port Vila and Luganville to go not tourism business.

Mr. Pelam explained that in terms of the implementation responsibility of the department then, is to ensure that there are enough tourism products are available, in line with the market demand of the country that captures and continues to sustain tourism market of the country. This is especially for the traditional market of Vanuatu, especially Australia and New Zealand.

He said now the government is considering looking at long haul markets such as China, United States of America and European Union to work on because the focus of the government to now had been on the country’s core markets and tended to forget the development of those possible markets. This marketing responsibility is done with the Vanuatu Tourism Office (VTO) whose role as a marketing arm of the Vanuatu Government is to continue to promote Vanuatu overseas, but the department focuses on destination product development.

“We create products and develop them to meet these markets. Many times, tourisms come to Vanuatu but their preferences are for different products. This means that we at the department must be wise as to how to cater for the variety of interests for products,” the Acting Director explained.