The Minister of Culture and Tourism, Hon. Samuel Manetoali has officially launched the new Corporate Direction for the Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau (SIVB).
The new Document will guide the work of SIVB, as the main marketing and promotion agency for Solomon Islands tourism sector for the 2013 – 2016 periods.
Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Manetoali said the appointment of a new SIVB Board in April this year has helped in identifying the challenges and opportunities faced by SIVB in marketing Solomon Islands as a tourist destination.
“Motivated by the fact that the government has entrusted us to market Solomon Islands as a tourist destination, we formulated this corporate direction for 2013-2016,” Mr Manetoali said.
The new corporate direction consists of both a marketing strategy and a work plan for the same period.
The new corporate direction incorporates three key features which the SIVB Board thinks the organisation should plan ahead for.
These include the departure of RAMSI, the restructuring of the logging industry and the opening of the country’s second International Airport at Munda in Western Province.
“These key factors influence our economy and our tourism, hence we need to plan ahead to avoid any disturbance to the inflow of tourist in our country,” Mr Manetoali said.
The new corporate direction is both tied and linked to the Government Tourism Action Plan 2011-2015 and to the Government National Development Strategy.
These links are vital to ensure that marketing Solomon Islands as a tourism destination meet the country’s national goals and objectives.
Overall, Minister Manetoali said with the current limited resources, SIVB will be embarking on the marketing principle of “low cost high impact” marketing in the implementation phase of the corporate direction.
“It simply means we will try our best to market tourism in areas where we believe will increase tourism arrivals into our country at a lower cost,” Manetoali said.
The launching on Friday was attended by senior government officials, tourism stakeholders and some overseas visitors.
Source: Press Release, Government Communications Unit