Vanuatu Hoteliers hopeful runway won't blunt tourism recovery

Transcript

The chairman of the Hotel and Resorts Association in Vanuatu Bryan Death says Air New Zealand's suspension of flights into the country is a blow for tourism because of the negative publicity it has created.

But Mr Death says the impact is minimal because it is not yet the high season and Air New Zealand is only running one flight a week.

Air New Zealand has stopped flying to Bauerfield because of concerns over the state of the runway although Virgin, Air Vanuatu, Solomon Airlines and Fiji Airways say they will continue to operate.

Mr Death told Sally Round that the airline's promotions and hot pricing have helped to push the New Zealand market share up to about 18 percent of total visitors to Vanuatu.

BRYAN DEATH: It is a blow to us and I am sure that the work that is going to be undertaken both in the short or long term will see Air New Zealand fly back into Vanuatu sooner rather than later.

SALLY ROUND: Do you think it was a decision that was taken too quickly, given that all the other airlines are going with the state of the runway and those interim measures?

BD: Well Air New Zealand undertook their own assessment, they brought in their own engineer, a contracted engineer. And that company Aecom they are quite familiar with Vanuatu, they have done work here before. So they wrote a report for Air NZ and based on that report, they chose to suspend their flights. That's a corporate decision from a major airline - we aren't able to criticise that decision. What we need to ensure is passenger safety for everybody, and I think the other airlines have accepted what civil aviation has put in place in respect of daily runway checks and sweeping for the time being. The immediate progress is that the civil aviation is bringing an engineer in themselves tomorrow and they will be working through a short term solution to get the surface stabilised in a way that will make it safe for all aircraft without the need to have daily inspections and daily sweeping. That would be a prelude to the full overlay of the airstrip which is in the pipeline.

SR: You said that this is bad publicity. Are you receiving many cancellations, the operators there, are people confused by things perhaps?

BD: Well yes we are receiving cancellations and Air NZ is either refunding people or redirecting them to other South Pacific destinations which is not our preferred option of course. When we have the opportunity to speak with our guests, as resort operators of course we are suggesting to them what is happening with Air Vanuatu and the possibility of moving their ticketing to Air Vanuatu. Air Vanuatu has come through with some pricing to basically offer people the same rate that they paid for their Air NZ ticket to travel on Air Vanuatu, on Air Vanuatu.

SR: Port Vila and the rest of Vanuatu, many of the areas are still recovering from Cyclone Pam. This must be a blow to the recovery of the tourism sector.

BD: Well the recovery is well underway and the next phase of the recovery is some destination marketing. We have still got a NZ film crew here right now. It is very important for us that we continue that push, because to be honest the country itself, as far as the tourism sector is concerned, is well into the recovery and now just needs the impetus of a big marketing push to recover the numbers. If we can get the work done that needs to be done to get Air NZ back up here to sign off on the runway and we can do that while there is the one flight a week process happening then I think we can mitigate the damage.

SR: So when do you think those mitigation measures will be finished enough for Air NZ to fly again?

BD: Well I think we are probably looking at two months as a minimum, and that's on the advice of the Downer manager here, who accompanied Aecom on the inspection of the airstrip and has the solution at hand to do an immediate fix, but that immediate fix involves moving materials from NZ to Vanuatu.

SR: We spoke to Joe Natuman about this World Bank loan which was offered for the repair of the runway. Will there be pressure from tourism and business operators to get the new government to revisit that loan?

BD: That is already well underway and yes we are putting a lot of pressure on. We have had communication from the World Bank, they will be flying a team in over the coming week. And I am sure the offer that is on the table will be renegotiated and we are very hopeful that will lead to the full overlay of the runway being completed this year.