A boost in visitor arrivals in the Cook Islands is threatening to stretch the country's accommodation facilities, with the industry pinning its hopes on the sale of a dawdling investment at Vai'maanga.
The Sheraton Hotel in the Cook Islands has been abandoned for decades and is now used for laser tag. Photo: Jerrye and Roy Klotz
This year visitor arrivals were up 19 percent from last year for the period of January to June.
The New Zealand-based Mirage Group has held a lease on the site for five years, with the aim of developing a 5-star hotel, but now the group says it's selling the project through Bayleys South Pacific.
The site was developed in the 1990s with the help of investment from the Government, but it collapsed with allegations of mafia-related corruption.
The Cook Islands Tourism Corporation CEO Halatoa Fua said the government learnt its lesson and he hopes a new investor will take up the challenge.
"What we're providing is facilitating the environmental resources to make it happen."
"Whereas 20 years ago government invested funds directly into the project, this is something we will refrain from this time so I think there's that approach that we've learned from in the past and won't happen again," he said.
