Imagine 50 German travel agents discovering the Pacific Islands and learning how to best sell the islands. Kate Fenton, Samoa Travel Authority representative and
Francois Martel, CEO of Polynesian Xplorer, hosted these agents at the Samoa tables, together with collegues from Cook Islands, Fiji, Tonga and Vanuatu.
The evening started with a light dinner when we welcomed the agents after their hard day’s work and a general presentation of the Pacific Islands followed. Kate Fenton did a great presentation of about 7 minutes on what Samoa has to offer as a travel destination for the German market. The one-on-one training followed at 7 minutes intervals, so all travel agents got a slice of each Pacific Islands, everyone making the best of the time to provide them with as much information as possible about the destination, properties and services available…and topping it with a reminder of Samoa’s past as a German colony and that Samoa is celebrating its 50th Independence anniversary this year.
Francois Martel, Dieter Wittig, Kate Fenton
The highlight of the evening was the award of prizes for the travel agents and Samoa offered a three-night stay at Sinalei Reef Resort and two full day tours by Polynesian Xplorer. The happy winner is Dieter Wittig of Reiseservice in Berlin, seen here leaning a bit more towards Kate than Francois!
German tourists arrivals in Samoa are lower than in previous years, so this SPTO initiative of developing South Pacific specialists is certainly welcome by our team and hopefully this exercise will translate into new bookings for Samoa.
Polynesian Xplorer Blog 