21 Jun 2006

Samoa looks to China for more tourists

9:48 am on 21 June 2006

Samoa's Visitor Bureau says it expects China to provide the biggest growing tourism market in the future.

The Chief Executive Officer of Samoa's Visitor Bureau, Reupena Matafeo, says the latest figures show good growth in both arrivals and money spent by tourists from Australia and New Zealand.

He says there are offices marketing Samoa in London and Berlin and some work has just got underway in Japan.

But Matafeo says they hope to open an office in China before the end of the year and then work on improving the transport links:

"Hopefully be able to convince them to organise direct flights from China to Samoa because at the moment they have to go via New Zealand."