Despite the fact that the recent economic crisis hit French Polynesia too, Tahiti tourism plans to promote the island on their priority markets even with the limited resources. The officials of the board will do whatever they can to support both current and planned tourism campaigns.
The economic crisis of recent years has affected many countries and French Polynesia has not been an exception. The number of tourists coming to Polynesia (154,000) declined in 2010 by 4.1%. Inbound tourism from mainland dropped as well, by 6.9%. In the end, lacking the necessary funds, Tahiti Tourism had to lower its budget in France. However, the board was still able to maintain its campaign to strengthen the communication and cooperation with French travel agents.
During the workshop the representatives of Tahiti held in Paris last months, Teva Janicaud, CEO of Tahiti Tourism, expressed the desire to sustain the promotional efforts of the board on three priority markets, which are the United States, Australia and Japan. With respect to Japan, he acknowledged that he was worried about their representatives stationed in Tokyo as Tahiti Tourism cut its budget for the metropolis even though it still represented a quarter of Tahiti’s visitors. France with 36,544 tourists is the second largest market for Polynesia, just behind the United States (41,020) but also ahead of Japan (13,761). Teva Janicaud admitted that the destination was increasingly difficult to sell in these markets adding that Tahiti would never attract the masses.
The new Tahiti Tourism campaign in France will target customers among the upper class, couples and divers. In addition, it will strengthen the incentive activities as the officials of the board plan to attract attention of local travel agents, especially with the campaign Tahiti Challenge. The board has already prepared gift vouchers for the local best sellers ranging from 100 to 1000 Euros. Finally, the CEO of Tahiti Tourism announced that the board intended to help with the preparation of major events as well as the establishment of a quality promotion campaign for the local guest houses.
