An official from the Pacific Community, the regional organization responsible for the Pacific Arts Festival, is scheduled to visit American Samoa next week to get an update on preparations for the event.
The Executive Director of the Arts Festival, Lauti Simona, says the Pacific community's Programme Manager, Linda Peterson, will be in Apia for a meeting and wants to use the opportunity to meet the Board to review progress.
Lauti says a decision by the governor to assign the Office of Tourism to help with hosting of the festival is very much welcomed by the Festival Board and his office.
He says the plan was always to involve tourism because the event is expected to attract hundreds of visitors.
Lauti said initial indications from the Tourism Office were the office could be busy with preparations for the Miss South Pacfic pageant if the territory's bid to host the competition is accepted.
But the pageant will be held after the festival and the involvement of the Tourism Office will be a tremendous help.
