A week-long training on data initiatives in tourism was held at the Muri Beach Club Hotel, co-organised by Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) and Cook Islands Tourism.

The Pacific Tourism Data Initiative (PTDI) and the Digital Measurement and Benchmarking Programme were among the topics covered. The workshop attracted 20 participants.

Cook Islands is among 10 other Pacific countries that have become part of the SPTO’s Tourism Digital Transformation Project.

Tina Kae, Cook Islands Tourism Corporation’s industry development manager, says the Corporation is engaging with both the tourism industry and a wider stakeholder group to introduce the Pacific Sustainable Tourism Indicator Framework (PSTIF).

This framework aims at improving their ability to measure the sustainability of the Cook Islands tourism offering.

These initiatives are part of the new Pacific Tourism Digital Transformation Project, funded by the New Zealand government.

The PTDI project includes creating a bi-annual International Visitor Survey (IVS), an annual Business Confidence Index (BCI), and an annual Community Attitude Survey (CAS) report, all to support data-driven planning and decision-making.

The Cook Islands is among Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tonga, Kiribati, Timor Leste, and FSM-Yap under the PTDI aimed at collecting and analysing tourism data.

SPTO chief executive officer Christopher Cocker emphasised that data was the cornerstone for decision-making and developing plans and strategies. He said the New Zealand Government funds this initiative, which is designed to gather and report on tourism information.

Cocker said the workshop’s objective was to foster knowledge exchange among participating countries and tourism stakeholders and facilitate the sharing of best practices, lessons learned, and innovative approaches to tourism data collection and analysis.

• SPTO /LL