Honourable Matai Seremaiah, Minister of Tourism, Trade, Commerce & Ni-Vanuatu Business pays a visit to the Santo Travel Information Centre.
Left to Right: Hon. Minister Matai Seremaiah visiting the Santo Travel Information Centre in Luganville, Santo.
Media Release - Port Vila, 18 November 2022: The new Honourable Minister of Tourism, Trade, Commerce of Ni-Vanuatu Business (MTTCNB), Honourable Matai Seremaiah and his delegation visited the Santo Travel Information Centre today Friday 18th November, 2022. This marks the first Official visit of the Minister for Tourism to the Santo Travel Information Centre and was welcomed by smiling officials who greeted the Minister and his delegation with shell necklaces supporting our local businesses from Santo. This visit was a part of the Minister’s Program of visit to line agencies under the MTTCNB in Espiritu Santo.
According to the Minister, the main purpose of the visit was to see the capacity of these line agencies under his Ministry as well as to receive the first cruise ship to Santo — The Pacific Adventure on Sunday 20th November, 2022.
The Santo Travel Information Centre is a crucial part of the Vanuatu Tourism Office’s destination marketing efforts. It acts as an information hub for all visitors to Santo booking for a holiday experience or collecting information for their travel plans. It also provides promotion and packaging information for the rest of the northern islands of the Country supporting Malampa, Penama and Torba Provinces with booking queries. The Centre also provides services for corporate travel with Government officials and NGOs wanting to organise group bookings for officials and encourages all travellers to utilise the services of the centre to book their next adventure.
Hon. Minister of MTTCNB, during the visit stated that he would like to know more about the challenges faced by each of the agencies so that the Ministry can see where they can come in to support areas that needed the most attention.
Serah Ety, the VTO Travel Information Officer for Santo stated that “visibility due to location is the main issue and it would be great if the Ministry and Luganville Municipality can assist to seek a location more suitable for the Travel Information Centre on the mainstreet of Luganville so that operators, locals and visitors alike can fully utilise the services of the centre.”
Minister Matai responded by stating that in the future, he would like for all the agencies of the MTTCNB to come under one roof and looks forward to discussing the plans with all line agencies under the Ministry as some of the way forward for the future of the Ministry in Luganville, Santo.
Mr. Albert Ruddley, Secretary General for the Sanma Local Government who was amongst the Government delegation provided some response to outline that Santo is a big island with plenty of resources and capacity for expansion and to move forward requires good human resources and support to fulfil such plans.
Santo Information Officer, Mrs Serah Ety also discussed the role of the travel centre and how crucial it was for the tourism product information coming from Torba, Penama and Malampa Provinces so that accurate information can be updated on the website and to be provided to walk-in guests and travellers.
The Santo Travel Information Centre is currently located at the ACOM Building in Luganville, Santo and provides travel information centres to all visitors, travellers and tourism businesses for promoting their businesses.
