Dear Editor, I have just listened to, and read the Prime Minister’s comments on the opening of the border on 13th January. And while I applaud the Prime Minister for letting ‘tourism’ start again, I am totally dismayed by the inequality of it all.

The “tourism” opening is for Rarotonga and Aitutaki only. There is very little for the rest of the Pa Enua. The seven-day isolation clause on Rarotonga before traveling to the Pa Enua effectively guarantees this. Those tourists visiting the Pa Enua have almost all been to Rarotonga and Aitutaki on previous visits and would have been coming to the Cook Islands for something different. They want to tour the Pa Enua.

Whoever in Government started subsidising those Southern and Northern group tours last year for locals during the past border closures was brilliant. The tours were a sell out. More were created and even more sold out. Even before the border briefly opened, these tours were advertised to real tourists and not locals at unsubsidised prices and they still filled up and were selling out well into the future. They sold so well that when the border closed again some of these tours carried on with locals filling spaces at full price. Wow! 

Absolutely brilliant promotion and development of Pa Enua Tourism. This was something government had been promising to do since last century. And, it probably didn’t cost government a bean. That use of government Covid tour subsidy money in the end often eliminated the need for Covid wage subsidies for Pa Enua tourism business. We were earning too much. The subsidy was paid back. Positively brilliant.

Now, it will be such a waste.

Pa Enua tourism will languish once again. Seven days isolation in Rarotonga will be such a killer. We will struggle once again with limited tourist numbers. Our investments in buildings and infrastructure will decay and we will be forced to close. Such wasted effort when success was so close.

Even after this sacrifice of the Pa Enua, can we be sure who is carrying the virus into the Cook Islands? A test only tells us that the virus is in undetectable numbers at the time a person is tested. The person could be a local or a tourist. They could be vaccinated or unvaccinated and still be carrying undetectable levels of the virus when tested on Rarotonga or Aitutaki under the system currently proposed by TMO.  Of course, even after seven days how do we know when a traveller (local or tourist) has picked up the virus and could be carrying it to the Pa Enua? We do not hear of any policy plans that tests were to be taken on people travelling to the Pa Enua as well. This so called two bubble system has too many holes to minimise the virus getting through.

Is there a solution though? One with less risk of spreading Covid and one that promotes tourism in the Pa Enua? I think there is. That is to have 15 bubbles with all local and tourist inter-island travellers having to hub through Rarotonga and all travellers are tested on leaving and returning to Rarotonga. 

Think about what this simple action does. It means we have likely caught the virus when it has only infected and spread on one island. The virus spread could be traceable under the Cooksafe+ on Rarotonga with the other islands being so small that tracing should be easy. We then get a better chance of isolating the invading virus and perhaps eliminating it or at least controlling the speed of its spread.

This is far better than the current proposed system. It’s full of holes and does not protect the Pa Enua anyway. Myself, I couldn’t resist meeting my family in Rarotonga on their return from NZ. They could be carrying the virus. I’ll be smothering them with hugs and kisses and will take their virus with me back to the Pa Enua. This I definitely see.

Changing government policy is hard and difficult and I do not expect much change from this policy direction from this letter. I do expect though, hardened reason why the current policy will continue. Given this, all I ask instead, is that at least recognise the inequality of the current policy, recognise that the Pa Enua has been marginalised and that we the Pa Enua will continue to suffer while Rarotonga and Aitutaki tourism returns. 

Perhaps government should appease Pa Enua tourism businesses by continuing the wage subsidy until the seven-day isolation in Rarotonga before travelling to the Pa Enua clause is removed and by granting funds for renovating aging Pa Enua tourism businesses.

We should have been all in this together.

Kia Manuia,

Roger Malcolm