SPTO OFFERS ATTACHMENT TO BUILD CAPACITY OF STAFF

The South Pacific Tourism Organisation hosted the Finance and Administration Manager, Sisimoka Ioane-Laufoli, from the Niue Tourism Office on a one-week attachment.

It was part of a continued commitment to build and enhance the capacity of staff from National Tourism Offices (NTO) in the region.

The capacity building initiative for key tourism stakeholders is an important part of SPTO’s role to market and develop regional tourism by enhancing and strengthening the quality of their service delivery.

During the week, Ms Ioane-Laufoli was given an overview of SPTO functions, office in particular the support it provides to NTOs and she was given specific training by the Finance and Corporate Division, the Executive Office, Research and Statistics, Sustainable Tourism Development section and the Marketing Division.

She highlighted some of the new knowledge gained which included enhanced knowledge on record keeping, collection of visitor arrivals data, measurement of tourist spending, collection of data from cruise ship arrivals and monitoring and updating the website.

“The attachment is like a refresher for me and I have a lot of confidence that the team back in Niue will be so happy to learn from, she said.

“We are always ready for new and fresh ideas. The attachment has been both educational and enjoyable - the friendly and helpful team of SPTO have set some good examples,” she added.

SPTO chief executive officer Chris Cocker was equally pleased with the attachment. “SPTO’s Smaller Island States (SIS) members which include Niue are special to SPTO and at the core of our programmes and activities. “I was pleased when Niue approached SPTO for an attachment. So the opportunity to assist them in other avenues, like Human Resource Development, is something we will not overlook,” he said.

SPTO conducted a similar training attachment in June 2017 with Tuvalu Tourism Office, which sits under the portfolio of the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade, Tourism, Environment and Labour.

The opportunity for training is available to all NTOs and tourism industry stakeholders and will be continued in 2018.