Pacific tourism operators are being encouraged to use the internet to grow both their businesses, and awareness of local biodiversity.
A new organisation has been launched to speak for the Pacific on the relationship between Tourism, bio-diversity and the internet, stemming from a workshop on tourism, biodiversity and information technology in Samoa.
Simon Milne, a professor of tourism at the Auckland University of Technology, says it's also a great way to spread knowledge among the tourism industry itself.
"About the value of promoting biodiversity, promoting environmental sustainability, because many travellers to the region are coming from countries in the west, where environmental consciousness is not only a way of life, but perhaps even fashionable."
Simon Milne says there needs to be a balance between mass tourism and eco-tourism, because they sustain each other.
