OPINION: After 14 months, first impressions matter

Alan Williams on 25/05/2021

Dear Editor, in response to your Columnist's article about the first flight from NZ to Raro, and the many issues she appears to have had. She keeps stating that Tourism had a full year in which to plan for this flight, and to revamp their entire systems. I highly doubt anyone at the tourism office was sitting around for a year wondering how they could greet your columnist once she got off the flight. I would imagine they had larger concerns such as "will tourism even come back if no cure is found for Covid", "what will the economy be like if this stretches on for years", "how will we convince traveler's from all over the globe that we are safe to visit again", "how do we operate on reduced budgets and how many staff do we need to let go during all of this", "what safety protocols do we need to implement to ensure the safety of tourists and our citizens". I can't imagine that being greeted by drummers and dancers is top of everyone's agenda when planning a visit to the Cook Islands. To be greeted by the Aunties with their "infectious" smiles and laughter should be more than enough for anyone, except it appears for your columnist. Speaking of drummer's and dancers, why does your columnist seem so fixated on them, given she mentioned them 3 times in her article? On one hand she wants the tradition of drums and dancers but then asks "has no-one come up with a modern take on who we are"? Which is it, tradition or re-invention? During a pandemic, when there was zero tourist dollar's flowing into the country, I am sure she would also have had an issue if money was then spent on upgrading the luggage carousel, "why were they not using that money to help locals affected by the pandemic" would have been her next complaint. Complaining about being in "cattle class" and everyone crammed into one plane. Was this also the fault of Cook Islands Tourism or is she now "ranting" at Air NZ and the fact that they didn't supply a plane for just her and her ego? She may want to take a minute and realize that with the Cook Islands still not having had their vaccine (given it arrived on the same flight as her but god forbid she had to wait a little longer for her luggage), maybe many locals are still hesitant about opening up their country until they do receive their vaccines. Having visited, and waiting until I can safely return to the Cooks, I found the "opinion" piece to be nothing but negative from start to finish. Maybe she could have taken a few minutes out of her negative day to ask others on the flight how happy they were to either return home or to visit loved ones or just to get to a little piece of paradise after such a terrible year. Alan Williams