VTO provides exciting update on the ongoing Market Intelligence work around the country
Media Release - Port Vila, 14th October 2022:
Data and insights are crucial elements of the decision-making and the team at the Vanuatu Tourism Office (VTO) is introducing new initiatives to gather data and insights in strengthening this area for the tourism and hospitality industry.
The Office is working in collaboration with the Vanuatu National Statistics Office (VNSO), Department of Tourism (DoT), Airports Vanuatu Ltd (AVL) and the Vanuatu Skills Partnership (VSP) to coordinate and deliver a consumer feedbacks, insights and data to assist the industry, government and stakeholders on what has been the impact of the arrival of the visitors since July 2022 into the country.
With August and September 2022 data still to be processed & verified, the group has shared July statistics showing that out of the 3,501 visitors in July alone, 80% of the visitors travelled to Vanuatu for the purpose of Holiday with 55% of the visitors coming from Australia; 13% from New Zealand; 13% from Europe; 8% from Asia and other Pacific countries; and finally 5% from New Caledonia and 2% from North America.
Source: Vanuatu National Statistics Office
It is noted that the delay in the issuance of monthly statistics, since the reopening of the borders on 01 July 2022, have been a point of concern, however, resources are being mobilized to properly equip VNSO for future updates.
For more information on the statistic updates: https://vnso.gov.vu/index.php/en/statistics-by-topic/tourism
Visitors’ Consumer Research Survey
The Vanuatu Tourism Office launched this month its consumer research work at Port Vila International Airport, which is expected to lapse on 21st October. The Consumer Research survey targets exclusively Vanuatu's returning visitors, who consent to share their experiences while in Vanuatu. According to the research enumerators, feedback is also being collected on the quality of product and service offering since the reopening of our borders. The survey analysis report is expected to be published in November 2022.
[Visitor survey conducted at Port Vila International Airport in October 2022]
In collaboration with the Provincial Department of Tourism Offices in Tafea, Malampa, Torba and Penama, the Vanuatu Tourism Office had organized and delivered participatory workshops with tourism businesses in the respective provinces to present the results of the Mini Travellers Intention Survey, conducted in February of 2022. Torba and Penama workshops are expected to be delivered in October.
“We are also collecting feedback from operators on how we can strengthen our coordination on data and information updates with industry operators. This will further support our tourism marketing storian initiatives to better tailor information based on target markets and intelligence for operators’ recovery planning,” says VTO Business Intelligence Manager, Mr. Warren Gama.
The Vanuatu Tourism Office is also delighted to welcome two new team members within its Business Intelligence team to develop, strengthen, research and report work on data collection, market research intelligence and data mining. This will aid in the recovery of the tourism, hospitality & travel industry.
Mr. Gregil Tomaki is VTO’s new Market Research Officer (International) and new staff member Florence Willy joins the VTO team as the Monitoring & Reporting Officer.
[Florence Willy , Monitoring and Evaluation Officer]
[Gregil Tomaki, Market Research Officer (International)]
“With our team members joining the Business Intelligence Program under the leadership of Manager Warren Gama, they will work with research, data, and statistics partners to strengthen data governance, data management and data intelligence for VTO to ensure relevant reporting is provided to our government, partners, stakeholders and tourism industry, This is an area we see no specific data is collected to improve understanding on the relevance of the tourism industry and how it is contributing to the economy as well as impacting our livelihoods.” states Mrs Adela Issachar Aru, Chief Executive Officer of the Vanuatu Tourism Office.
The Office continues forward to work with partners to measure the performance of the Domestic Tourism Market following the launch of the Domestic Tourism Marketing Strategy in 2021. This is an achievement for growing resilience as highlighted in the Vanuatu Sustainable Tourism Strategy and is a result of policy guidance from the results of border closure.
VTO has engaged with the Private Sector Development Initiative (PSDI) to seek collaboration and technical assistance in developing the methodology to measure the performance of the Domestic Tourism Market strategy and its relevance as a new market for recovery of the tourism industry. Launched in 2021, soon after the border closure, the Vanuatu Tourism Office had launched the Domestic Tourism Marketing Strategy as a result of border closure.
An Expression of Interest (EOI) is currently available this month, seeking to recruit a suitable candidate to work with the VTO.
Vanuatu Border Management System (VBMS)
The Vanuatu Tourism Office is excited to witness the coordination and development of the Vanuatu Border Management System (VBMS) through the Vanuatu Immigration Services Department. With consultation workshops recently delivered on the set-up and use of this system, the benefit of capturing visitor arrival data will also complement the efforts of the ASYCUDA system. This new system will provide further intelligence to assist in repackaging information for our industry members, stakeholders, and the Government.
[Participants of the Integrated Border Management for Vanuatu]
