Tourism Cook Islands Tourism, the shape of things to come!

Since the pandemic ended and borders opened Cook Islands Tourism Corporation’s chief executive officer Karla Eggelton and her team have been focused on getting inbound travel back on track to something resembling the heyday of 2019; the year when visitor figures reached record numbers and the tourism industry was booming.

Karla said that 2022 was very much about readying the Cook Islands for a post-pandemic influx.

“That first year was mostly about airlines! I spent probably 75% of my time looking at airline opportunities. Looking at ways in which we could work with the airline crisis – the lack of planes and crew and being able to get the Cook Islands positioned as a destination an airline would fly to, said Karla.

“We turned the switch off in 2020, and we needed to turn the switch back on in 2022.”

Karla said that during the pandemic the Cook Islands Tourism Corporation and the tourism industry talked about what the ‘new’ Cook Islands might look like when visitors returned.

“In the first year, business was predominantly from New Zealand with sprinklings of Australians, Europeans and Americans finding their way here during that time. Air New Zealand flights from Auckland were the only flights to the Cook Islands until Air Rarotonga started flying to Tahiti in August 2022.

“In May 2023 we welcomed a weekly flight from Honolulu with Hawaiian Airlines, and in June Jetstar began flying three times a week from Sydney.”

Both Hawaiian Airlines and Jetstar are flying to Rarotonga with Airbus 321 neo aircraft. Air New Zealand services its AucklandRarotonga route mostly with 787-9 Dreamliners.

In June 2023, Air Tahiti resumed two flights a week between Papeete, Tahiti and Rarotonga using ATR72-600 and ATR42600 aircraft.

Karla said the New Zealand market is the most significant contributor to inbound business from April through to November.

“The new flights from Australia Hawaii and Tahiti will provide the opportunity to develop high yielding, longer staying, bigger spending customers who may travel to the Cook Islands during the summer months December though to March.

“The private sector is really keen to see this diversity take shape,” said Karla.

“The private sector is working to get back on track too. They've had real challenges around labor shortage and supply. They have been fantastic under the circumstances.”

Karla is optimistic that the 2023 calendar year will deliver around 130,000 visitors, which is around 20% less than 2019.

“The prediction for 2023 is not attributable to our desirability as a destination, but purely due to lack of access to more aircraft!

“2024 is a difficult to forecast, but we’ll continue to seek to increased seat capacity and focus on tourism development.”

In October 2022, Cook Islands Tourism launched a new tourism development strategy.

“We’re focussing on the opportunities around regenerative travel, aimed at visitors wanting to travel to destinations, not just for a holiday, but to give back, to have experiences that are meaningful and that can help ‘build back better’ the destination they are visiting.”

According to Karla, there has been a global ground swell of these types of visitors actively looking for these destinations.

“While regenerative tourism is not going to take over our entire promotions, it's a new pillar of opportunity.

“For example, Kōrero o te 'Ōrau, a non-governmental organisation, with community support and dive businesses go to the lagoons collecting Crown of Thorns Starfish (COTS) that are eating our reefs.”

Ministry of Marine Resources in the scoping, removal or culling of COTS.

“There are people in this world who want to have that experience but have not been given that opportunity in the Cook Islands. We want to take these wonderful programs that are feeding into keeping our environment pristine, and have our visitors experience that!

“That's an example of regenerative tourism,” said Karla.

“The key in all of this is where the planes are flying from, and what kind of visitors arrive with those planes.”

“We will research and work to the strengths of what Honolulu, Sydney and Papeete, as hubs, are able to offer us in the way of connections for visitors from other markets in the USA, Australia and Europe.”

We asked Karla if the Cook Islands will ever return to the ‘good old days’ of 2019.

COTS are natural reef inhabitants and reef predators, locally known as taramea. When COTS numbers stay within sustainable limits, they have a role to keep coral reefs healthy. Problem is when they reproduce too fast. Recently higher than usual COTS numbers have appeared on Rarotonga’s reefs.

“Visitors may have the opportunity to help alongside Kōrero o te 'Ōrau and the

Another example of this type of experience for visitors cited by Karla may involve the Cook Islands SPCA Animal Shelter.

“Visitors taking dogs for a walk and helping to feed and care for the animals. This is another example of an NGO doing great work for our community but needing help. We’d like to make this experience available to visitors.”

Karla said that Cook Islands Tourism wants to encourage the creation of several ‘regenerative’ experiences for visitors.

What other factors will affect the future of tourism to the Cook Islands?

“The game changer for us is it's not going to be the destination so much, as it’s going to be access!

“The reality is that Cook Islands is sitting at a crossroads right now, and we are going to have to choose our destiny. The idea of going back to 2019, the good old days, will need to be tested. That's why our tourism development strategy is important for our next guiding steps, and that we're not just chasing the numbers.

“Not to be misunderstood, Cook Islands Tourism has a responsibility. There are currently 3,500 rooms in our country that have been built, or that have been invested in, by the private sector. Good money has been put into this tourism infrastructure, and we have a responsibility to fill those rooms. Should we grow beyond 2019 visitor numbers? Well, that's debatable right now.

“The focus for Cook Islands Tourism is making sure that private sector businesses who invested time and money into the industry get the return they deserve.”