The awards were put together by Cook Islands Tourism Industry Council in conjunction with Oceania Tourism Group with many local sponsors coming on line over the last three awards. They are held every two years and the process is completly independant of the Cooks, so there are no reasons to doubt the results and also it is a fabulous way to get good feedback from overseas specialists.

They are broken down into seven  different categories and also have special awards for specific areas of excellence:

     Environement, Culture and Heritage, Internet Marketing, Outer Islands, and Customer Care which was the underlying theme in this year's awards.

A Supreme Award is then given to an outstanding candidate who ticks all the boxes.

In addition the seven categories are:

     Accommodation      Budget

                                     Hotels and Resorts

                                     Private Rentals

                                     Self Catering which includes Villas

     Festivals and Events

     Tourism Attractions (including excursions, tours and experiences)

     Tourism Industry Support (includes retail, transport, and travel professionals)

The Awards were first presented in 2009 after the Tourism Industry Council decided the time was right; tourism was seen as a the number one foreign exchange earner and they wanted to lift the overall standards - and this has been the case over the three awards that have been judged. We have just come back from doing the assessing and judging of the third - the 2013 awards - and the standards were very high. Tough job!

The lobby of the Pacific Resort Aitutaki.

The incoming Australian Government will be without a dedicated tourism minister for the first time in over four decades, following Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott’s announcement of his new cabinet this week (Sep 16).

Andrew Robb has been appointed the Minister for Trade and Investment, under which responsibility for Tourism Australia will lie, while domestic tourism will be under the control of Ian Macfarlane in his Minister for Industry portfolio.

However, neither will carry the Tourism Minister title held by Labor predecessors Gary Gray and Martin Ferguson.

Former Shadow Tourism Minister Bob Baldwin has been appointed the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and will assist Macfarlane with domestic tourism.

In his time as shadow minister, Baldwin was vocal in backing the industry and pushed through a number of Coalition policies to benefit the industry.

The leading industry associations have had a mixed reaction to the news.

When contacted by HM, Tourism Accommodation Australia would not comment on the Cabinet announcement, while the Accommodation Association of Australia said it was too soon to discuss the new positions.

“Until the Ministers are sworn in and administrative arrangements are place, it is too premature to make public comment about the announcement of the new federal ministry,” Accommodation Association of Australia’s CEO, Richard Munro told HM.

The Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) slammed the decision of the Abbott Government to not have a Tourism Minister appointed.

ATEC Managing Director, Felicia Mariani, said the tourism industry “must be recognised for its AUD$28 billion contribution to the national economy”.

“This is the first time in more than 40 years that Australia has not had a tourism Minister and our members, and the industry more broadly, are concerned by this significant omission,” she said.

“What will be important into the future is the Abbott Government’s commitment to strengthening the tourism industry and its valuable contribution, and we are confident this can be done well through the new Minister for Trade and Investment, Andrew Robb.

“As one of Australia’s most successful and enduring export industries, we must be recognised and fully engaged in the new Minister’s agenda.

“While we welcome this whole of Government approach, we need to have a clearly defined Minister who has a responsibility for the tourism industry on a day-to-day basis,” she said.

Mariani, however, said ATEC “welcomed the Government’s policy announcement placing greater focus on engaging export tourism as a strong contributor to Australia’s international trade”.

“The tourism industry has for far too long been overlooked as a significant contributor to Australia’s export sector, and this new alignment with trade and investment finally acknowledges our place at this important table,” she said.

“Tourism is the largest contributor to the country’s export performance in the services sector and the 6th largest overall within the export industries.

“As the only national industry association devoted to the development of Australia’s $28 billion export tourism industry, Minister Robb must be fully engaged with ATEC in order to understand the needs and complexities of the thousands of businesses who comprise this critical industry.

“ATEC calls on Minister Robb to engage the export tourism sector in his new Ministerial Advisory Council on Trade and Investment.”

Mariani thanked Baldwin for his extensive engagement with the tourism industry.

“Baldwin has been an incredible champion for the issues confronting the tourism industry and this was substantiated by the way that he worked to shape the excellent Coalition Tourism Policy that was launched prior to the election.

“He has been a very available and highly visible Shadow Minister and we wish him well in his new portfolio responsibilities,” she said.

The Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF) welcomed the new cabinet with open arms, saying it was “excited about the potential benefits that arise from aligning international tourism with foreign affairs and trade”.

TTF Chief Executive Ken Morrison said aligning international tourism with foreign affairs and trade “makes good sense”.

“TTF is pleased to see Tourism Australia positioned under the umbrella of foreign affairs and trade,” he said.

“This is a sensible arrangement which will ensure that tourism is considered in the decision making around Australia’s foreign policy and acknowledges the gateway role that tourism plays in helping foster international relationships for business, education and investment.

“Economic diplomacy of this type will help to drive synergies in the promotion of Australia as an international destination, leveraging the activities of other Australian agencies in key source markets.

“We congratulate Andrew Robb on his appointment as Minister for Trade and Investment and look forward to working with him to grow international visitation to Australia.

“Tourism is an economic development strategy for Australia, driving economic activity in every part of the country and providing jobs and business opportunities.

“While the mining investment boom may be waning, the people boom is just beginning and Australia is well-positioned to capitalise on growing demand in Asia for international travel.

“We believe the new portfolio arrangements will help Australia maximise the potential of this unprecedented opportunity.

“Thanks must go to Parliamentary Secretary for Industry Bob Baldwin, who has done the hard yards over the past three years as Shadow Minister for Tourism.”

Too often, customer service is viewed as a department, a designated employee's job role or, someone else's responsibility. Because of this limited view of customer service, many employees are content to simply execute a series of mandatory job functions until the end of their shifts-blissfully unaware of the myriad opportunities forfeited to make lasting positive impressions on their customers.

To expand on this narrow definition of customer service, I'd like to submit my own definition for consideration: Customer service is a voluntary act that demonstrates a genuine desire to satisfy, if not delight, a customer.

The second element contained in this definition that we'll explore further is the active quality of exceptional customer service.

Service is a verb. As such, it requires action. Without initiative, one's readiness and ability to initiate action, there is no exceptional customer service.

It's the difference between a retail clerk who, after completing a transaction, offers the ubiquitous industry farewell, "Your receipt's in the bag" compared to an engaged clerk who notices (verb) the customer's well-mannered children and offers (verb) a sincere and specific compliment about their behavior.

Both noticing the children's behavior and choosing to compliment it require the clerk to be an active participant in an exchange rather than a passive observer of a transaction. It requires that the clerk view service as a verb, exercise initiative in the moment of choice, and take deliberate action to create a lasting positive impression.

And knowing this truth about exceptional customer service provides the second piece to an elusive 7-piece puzzle that, when assembled, provides employees with a very clear image of what exceptional customer service is and what's required of them to consistently deliver it.

This is by Steve Curtin, feature writer for E Hotelier

Few things are worse for the traveler than nasty surprises.

Yet we keep traveling.

Not simply because we like to travel or because we must travel, but because we accept that the world is an imperfect place and the travel industry an imperfect business that likes, when possible, to get by on the bare minimum.

Nevertheless, there are some fixes that could be implemented quickly and cheaply that would make travel much more pleasant for everyone.

We seek neither the impractical (first-class leather seats in coach), the implausible (teleportation), nor the unrealistic (airport concourses that demand less walking than a breast cancer fund-raiser).

Even better, none of the brainstorms below are protected by patents, licenses or other legal restrictions, so Big Travel can feel free to scoop them up and begin making our lives better right away.

1. Update hotel check-in times

In 1946, the Tote'm convenience-store chain extended its hours from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., announcing its groundbreaking move by changing its name to 7-Eleven.

In 1974, the company now known as ACCEL/Exchange booted up the world's first 24-hour ATM network.

In 2005, England and Wales ushered in the era of never-ending beer drinking by granting licenses allowing pubs to serve liquor round-the-clock.

Yet as nonstop commerce has created a sleepless planet, hotels remain mired in conventions of the 1800s, when the steam train rolled in and out of town once each afternoon and again the following morning.

With airlines cleaving away from the hub-and-spoke system -- which once rigidly controlled arrival and departure times -- in favor of more or less continuous schedules and red-eye flights, the hotel industry needs to restructure its own arrival and departure policies to reflect modern traffic flow.

Few miseries compare to landing in a city at 6 a.m. only to while away the morning in traveler's purgatory awaiting an "early" 1 p.m. check-in that you had to grovel to get.

The major hotel chain that figures out a way to implement "anytime check-in" on a mass scale will become the new Hilton.

Unless, of course, Hilton gets to it first.

2. Invent a universal plug socket

A few years ago, tech-connected people lived in an era of many too gadgets and not enough laptop sockets, wondering why the hell devices couldn't just share the same plug-ins.

Then someone invented the USB.

The travel industry is suffering from a similar connection problem.

Two thin pins in the United States; two round pins in Europe; three chunky pins in the United Kingdom; three even chunkier pins in India, with some smaller three-pins occasionally used for really old lamps.

There are attempts to paper over this dilemma. But what if you're not lucky enough to be in a business hotel with a full 3x2 foot panel dedicated to a dozen types of plug shapes?

What if you don't want to carry around three different personal plug adaptors that might work, if you're lucky?

China has started to try to solve this problem, with some hotels employing single, all-purpose wall sockets able to accept various shapes and numbers of pins.

Isn't it time everyone started doing the same?

3. Bring us the check

Nothing spoils a meal like being held hostage to an uppity or lackadaisical waiter's notion of when you'll be allowed to leave the restaurant.

Checks should be delivered with the final course, at least for businesses lunches.

 
4. Abolish institutionalized taxi extortion

One of the enduring mysteries of travel is the shocking percentage of municipalities that allow the first impression of their cities to be an extortionate US$65 cab ride from the airport to downtown.

Does the Mafia run every taxi company in the world?

Is it too much to ask that visitors to major cities be spared from getting fleeced as if they've concluded a losing transaction with a neighborhood bookie as soon as they get to town?

Affordable rides into the city would eliminate a significant amount of the stress and hassle endured by visitors coming to a place for the first time.

If private enterprise can't responsibly accommodate tourists, local legislation should be employed to force them into it.

5. Offer upgrades whenever possible

Airline upgrades are the Bigfoot of the travel world.

People talk of them in hushed tones, with shrugged shoulders, their faces darkened in some corner of a rural tavern as they exchange secrets on how and where you might be able to score one.

Surely this is ridiculous.

We understand the consumer psychology behind premium-level status -- you start giving away your exclusive product and suddenly it's no longer exclusive.

But while most consumer-facing industries like to improve customer experiences whenever possible, the airline industry seems to go out of its way to keep its passengers grumpy and miserable.

The hotel industry is a little better. Taj Hotels has a policy of upgrading to the next level of room or suite if available when you check in.

But for the most part hotels avoid upgrading, too, and we suggest at some cost.

Wouldn't the word-of-mouth and social media praise be worth it from customers grateful for surprise upgrades if they occurred more often?

6. Retire the beverage cart on short flights

Responsible for more mashed toes and dislocated elbows than the UFC, these 300-pound chariots of doom present passengers in aisle seats with a constant danger, cost airlines millions and keep us from hitting the head at precisely the moment we most need to.

To shave expenses, airlines have already done away with most food. The next logical step is ending the tiresome drink service that creates more trouble than it's worth.

For flights of two hours or less, hand out bottles of water and sell beer, wine and drinks in the departure lounge. This will save the airlines money and labor and, for customers, eliminate the risk of being sideswiped every five minutes by the polyestered haunch of an exhausted flight attendant horsing a Sisyphun weight up and down the aisle taking drink requests and barking orders -- "Keep your feet in!" "Watch your knees!" -- with all the élan of the guy who sits in the booth and weighs you in at the dump.

7. Just stop talking, please

The first port of call for most vacations -- the airport -- is invariably an unending and un-ignorable procession of barely decipherable Tannoy announcements, most of which are entirely superfluous.

Noise equals stress, so airports should be minimizing it wherever possible, not adding to it.

We know by now to keep our luggage with us at all times, that airports are non-smoking areas and if you have had to call Mrs. Bawdwallah nine times to "proceed immediately to gate number 12," it's safe to say she doesn't care or she isn't able.

8. Eliminate the paper trail

Why do we need a tissue-thin napkin every time someone on an airplane hands us four ounces of water in a urine-sample cup?

Former American Airlines chairman Robert Crandall once famously saved his company US$40,000 a year by eliminating the olive from salads the airline once served onboard.

A small redwood forest could be recycled from the napkins airlines plow through each year.

9. Booking should be more transparent

You think you've found the deal of a lifetime, till you click "checkout" and the price suddenly doubles due to the airport tax.

Or you spot an airline ad for "US$10 deals" to the other side of the world, but you have to book on exactly the right day and on the right flight to take advantage and they don't mention when that is.

Though less of a problem in the United States, where regulations require airfares on websites be listed as total prices including taxes and extra fees, a little transparency in other parts of the world would go a long way to making the booking process far better.

10. Give us our phones back

If you can get a 300-ton hunk of iron and aluminum into the sky, surely you can figure out a way for us to use our iPads without it causing a disaster?

By James Durston and Chuck Thompson.

Sourced from CNN Travel.

TripAdvisor has been applauded for agreeing to remove old negative reviews after hotels undergo refurbishment.

Steve Tate, chairman of Hotel risk management body CheckSafetyFirst.com, said the online travel reviews giant should be commended for reviewing its policy towards hotels which want to "wipe the review slate clean" after major renovations have taken place.

He said: "At the same time, it is vital that a robust method is used to validate these changes.

"Hotel groups may spend millions on renovations to a property or brands may change, but this doesn't necessarily remove underlying problems at each property.

"Poor guest experience and negative reviews are usually the result of human error. Dirty rooms, unhelpful staff, poor food and dangerous pools are all the result of poor management which can't be forgotten about when a renovation is made.

"When TripAdvisor analyses hotel alterations to decide whether old reviews can be deleted, transparency is vital to ensure that a guest is still receiving an accurate picture of where they are looking to stay.

"Guest experience and wellbeing must be the priority, so TripAdvisor must work hotels hard to prove that renovations are worthy of having old reviews removed," added Tate.

Hotels need to provide building permits, materials invoices, or press releases to prove that the renovations were indeed structural and completed, according to TripAdvisor's help centre

Old reviews are then deleted from the live site and cannot be accessed by travellers or hoteliers.

"We understand that as part of running a successful hospitality business, sometimes significant renovations are made in an effort to modernize or simply remodel an establishment," TripAdvisor spokeswoman Alison Croyle told online travel intelligence company Skift.

"With this in mind, TripAdvisor will remove a property's reviews and photos that were posted prior to completion of a major renovation."

Chinese property developer Dalian Wanda Group says it can afford to spend as much as $5 billion every year to buy foreign firms or assets, underscoring the rising clout of the firm as it expands abroad.

Just weeks after completing its buy-out of British yacht maker Sunseeker International Ltd, Chairman Wang Jianlin says that he’s prepared to spend even more than $5 billion in a single acquisition if the right opportunity arises.

Wang, ranked as China’s richest man by Forbes this week, said the company will continue to focus on the hospitality and entertainment industries.

“Every year we should have around a few billion U.S. dollars,” said Wang, who was speaking in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economico Forum in Dalian, northern China.

Wanda Group, a privately-held conglomerate that operates businesses ranging from hotels and shopping malls to cinemas, has expanded rapidly outside China in recent years.

In June, Wang told Reuters that he planned to invest about $1 billion to build a five-star hotel in New York and that he wanted to build Wanda hotels in eight to 10 cities outside China over the next decade in an effort to increase the company’s global presence.

The New York announcement followed a 1 billion pound ($1.57 billion) British investment that included the acquisition of Sunseeker, Britain’s largest luxury yacht maker by sales, and the construction of a 160-room Wanda hotel and apartment building in London.

Wanda made its first international foray last year, buying U.S. cinema chain AMC Entertainment for $2.6 billion.

The company announced on Wednesday that it would hold opening ceremonies for its new 30 billion yuan ($4.90 billion) film studio in the Chinese coastal city of Qingdao later this month.

China’s overseas investments totaled $87.8 billion in 2012, up 17.6 percent from 2011, making it the world’s third-largest investor behind the U.S. and Japan, according to a report jointly released by China’s Ministry of Commerce, the National Bureau of Statistics, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

Concerns that Chinese investments overseas are hindered by rising regulatory scrutiny are also unfounded, Wang said, blaming “sensational media reports” for stirring undue worries.

The U.S. government is not hostile to investment from overseas, and likewise China’s regulation of foreign investment is not as stringent as some think, he said.

“At first, we were scared too. We thought if we invested in the United States, we would have to wait a long time. We asked a local lawyer and he also said he wasn’t confident of an approval.

“But to our surprise, it’s not that complicated. As long as it is a bona fide private firm, as long as it does not involve sensitive industries, I believe there will be no problems.”

Wanda has succeeded in closing overseas deals for service-sector acquisitions and investments while Chinese companies in more sensitive fields such as resources and telecommunications have often faced opposition when trying to buy foreign assets.

Dalian Wanda Group, which was founded in 1988, has 300 billion yuan ($49.02 billion) in total assets and 141.7 billion yuan ($23.15 billion) in annual revenue, according to the company.

Group real estate assets include 72 Wanda Plazas across China, along with 40 five-star hotels. The company also owns 6,000 movie screens, 62 department stores and 68 karaoke centers.

Forbes estimates that Wang’s fortune now stands at $14 billion, more than that of Zong Qinghou, chairman of local drinks company Hangzhou Wahaha.

Courtesy of Bloomburg

We have been appointed to market in New Zealand the Royal Sunset Island Resort on Atata Island in Tonga. The Resort is on Tongatapu, the main island and is around 20 minutes by boat from Nuku'alofa, the capital.

The Sunset Resort is popular as a day trip for locals who want to get away for the day and have full use of the Resorts water sports, and popular with New Zealanders who's numbers have more than dopubled over the past year.

"Its appeal is in its authenticity which more and more people want to experience. Tonga culture at its best." says Ross Mclauchlan the principal of Oceania Tourism. "If you want a dacquiri then go to Denerau", saya Mclauchlan, in reference to the fact that there are plenty of places around the Pacific, particularly in the North, where Australians and New Zealanders go for the sun and beaches but they are scant on delivery of the local culture.

The Resort, and indeed Tonga which boasts the new slogan 'The True South Pacific', is a new destination in comparison with the Cook Islands and Fiji which are traditional holiday destionations that we all went to when we were kids. The fact an emerging destination where things are a bit 'raw' in terms of customer service, is part of the appeal.

"These guys are for real", says McLauchlan.

Parliament Translation Summary - DPM equals the Deputy Prime Minister
3 Sept 2013
 
The DPM Samiu Vaipulu returned on Saturday 31 August from a trip to China. He reported this on his visit to the House.
 

• Confirmed support of the PASO as well as ICAO in Bangkok, for Tonga
• Says the ICAO Director-General’s report was received and that they were satisfied the work carried out was in accordance with Document 9760 (Airworthiness Manual), Clause 4.3.5 which is endorsed internationally. Explains that the clause says any nation which cannot produce an aircraft, or lacks the capacity and expertise to do so, may use the aircraft of another country that is found airworthy. [Doc 9760:4.3.5 Subsequently, a State of Registry may accept the original type certificate in lieu of issuing its own or use it as a basis for issuing its own type certificate when processing an aircraft type intended to be entered on the State’s civil aircraft register for the first time. It should be done through regulations or bilateral agreements to give maximum credit to the type certification work already done by the State of Design and minimize duplicate or redundant testing that add little or no value to the overall airworthiness of the aeronautical product.]
• Says the Tongan Cabinet, in following this procedure, signed an agreement (for the MA60) with China in June 2012.
• Says he called on China’s Minister for Civil Aviation in Beijing and the Minister revealed that they had called on the New Zealand Ambassador to China “to put a stop to what New Zealand was doing to the aircraft. Because they already had an agreement signed with New Zealand.
• “The NZ Ambassador in Beijing’s response was that he and McCully clashed on this issue. The Ambassador said their concern was not really with the aircraft itself, but the company which operates the aircraft in Tonga…The NZ Ambassador says one thing and McCully says another.”

 
‘No word’ from CAA New Zealand
 

• The DPM told the Chinese Civil Aviation Minister that the owner of Real Tonga is in fact the person who takes care of Air NZ, Fiji Airways, and Virgin Australia when they arrive in Tonga.
• The DPM told the House that “to date there has never once been a comment from the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand. It is only McCully who has given his own opinion.”
• He added that China also allowed New Zealand to their country to inspect the aviation problems they were concerned with. “But at our meeting (in Beijing) I was told that New Zealand had never reached China to carry out an inspection and there has never been a complaint raised by the NZ Civil Aviation Authority.”
• Vaipulu said the New Zealand Ambassador had asked Chinese authorities not to publicize the details of their discussion. “But I told the (Chinese) Civil Aviation Minister, I will release this information in Tonga, today. The reason, Lord Speaker, is so that it is known to New Zealand that the groundwork has been completed.”

 
Safety and training
 

• The DPM said the reason the aircraft has not been issued a safety certificate in America is because it is a very costly process. He said all reports on the MA60 plane crashes in Myanmar and Indonesia are publicly available at China’s Ministry of Civil Aviation Authority, and they confirm that the accidents were a result of pilot/human error.

This is interesting in light of the NZ Government's travel advisory and McCullys sudden change of pace.

Posted at 03:31 on 03 September, 2013 UTC

A New Zealand travel agency says bookings to Tonga remain strong despite safety concerns with a new MA-60 aircraft flying domestically between Nuku’alofa and Vava’u.

The New Zealand government suspended eight million US dollars of tourism aid in July and issued a travel advisory against New Zealanders using the Real Tonga plane.

The aircraft, which was gifted from China, has one of the world’s worst safety records.

But the House of Travel commercial director, Brent Thomas, says there have been very few cancellations by concerned travellers.

He says figures show a 17 per cent growth in travellers to Tonga in the first seven months of this year and bookings have remained just as strong since.

    “Fiji’s up 1 per cent, the Cook Islands is down 3 per cent, Samoa is down 9 per cent. Vanuatu, another strong area, is up 49 per cent, and Tonga is up 17 per cent. So, you know, in terms of the numbers going to Tonga for the first seven months of this year, is very strong.”

Brent Thomas says many travellers’ plans would not be affected by the travel advisory as the MA-60 aircraft flies to only one island.

News Content © Radio New Zealand International
PO Box 123, Wellington, New Zealand

Wi fi battle

It seems to me that some hotel chains need to be hit over the head to make them understand a few things. Those that charge for Wi Fi have succeeded in sending their customers to the curb. Major cities are installing Wi Fi stations in their parks, downtown, and social centers, and it is FREE. Imagine that! You would think that hotels that still charge for this service would wake up and find a way to keep those customers in their own respective social centers.

You think it will happen? Probably not.

Some of those chains are too blind to see. New York City is providing free Wi Fi, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles too.

Now, weather permitting you can enjoy a nice day while surfing the internet. Of course in Las Vegas a nice day is 105 degree weather under a hot sun, so maybe then indoor might be better.

The other alternative is in your air cooled car parked in the Wi Fi area. Hotels have had a free ride with the Wi Fi charges, it is time for them to say thank you, but as a valued customer we will now offer the service free of charge. Good idea if you ask me, then the die-hard’s will wonder why their customer base is leaving.

Starbucks started out charging for connecting to a hotspot, but in the end they realized that it was more beneficial to offer the service free. I do not like to pay for internet service at a hotel, the tab is around $12.00 per 24 hour slot. Now suppose that I need to be at this hotel for 7 days, and I need to be on the internet.

That bill can get quite high. So the first thing I will look for is a free Wi Fi location near or far from the hotel. There is always a Starbucks nearby people.

Hotels are you paying attention?

I am glad that these cities are taking the lead in providing this valuable service to their citizens.

Again it all comes down to service to the customer. Customer service can and should extend beyond the front door of the hotel. In the end all hotels, like it or not, will offer free Wi Fi service, it is just a matter of when it will be done. The competition will start soon, and as the hotels drop the charge, those that don’t will lose to those that do.

Remember you are dealing with a new generation of techies, and Wi Fi is a must, you could remove the soap, and they would not care, but Wi Fi is another matter. So get on board and get with the program. Charging for Wi Fi is not worth losing customers over.

Hoteliers can always find some other benefit that they can charge for, go ahead look around I am sure that there must be something you can gouge your customers with.

By Alan Campbell - ehotelier

So much for the survey of Americans that concluded the travel agency as we know them are on their way out:

Managing director Graham Turner said that while international operations contributed about $57 billion to pre-tax earnings, the Australian business was once again the mainstay of its full-year profit.

The company posted a 23 per cent rise in net profit to $246 million for the year to June. Sales increased in both leisure and corporate travel, leading to a rise in revenue of 8.7 per cent to $1.985 billion.

The company yesterday released a record profit result and is expecting a lift of up to 12 per cent in pre-tax earnings for the forthcoming financial year. The pre-tax profit of $349 million is higher than had been forecast in July.

Turner said he was confident the falling Australian dollar won’t have a significant impact on leisure travel and added that the company was “well placed to weather any storms.”

TV chef determined to show how superior food caught or grown in the Pacific is to imports.

At the airport in Samoa, I once saw an arriving family laden down with jumbo boxes of a well-known brand of fried chicken. Coming back to their native island, where the water teems with fish, where coconuts and other fruit fall from trees, where taro and green leaves flourish in the rich soil, they could think of no better gift to bring than calorie-laden factory-farmed fast food, cooked 3000km away.

On a visit to Tonga, I dined at the mansion of Crown Prince Tupouto'a (later George Tupou V, now deceased) on lamb roast and frozen mixed vegetables, all from New Zealand. It seemed jarringly odd that the extravagantly generous hospitality of the royal host was not expressed in local flavours.

It's this Pacific version of what Kiwis have always called cultural cringe that Robert Oliver is determined to change. The Taranaki-born chef is the prime mover of a quiet revolution whose ripples are spreading out across the Pacific.

Oliver, who has had restaurants in New York, Miami, Las Vegas and Sydney, was the co-author of the 2010 book Me'a Kai - the title means "come and eat" in Tongan - which collected and celebrated recipes supplied by locals, mainly women, from Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga and Tahiti.

He grew up in Fiji and Samoa, where his father started the local branches of the YMCA, which he remembers as "dynamic organisations doing innovative agricultural and social programmes". That spirit is behind his consuming mission to change food culture in the Pacific so that local produce and traditional methods supplant the bland corporatised cuisine found in most resort hotels.

"Restaurants are great holders of culture and communicators of culture," he explains. "The story of the food is the story of the people."

In many Pacific nations, the daily diet has become corrupted. The perceived "coolness" of non-island culture and the easy availability of high-fat, high-salt imported meats and fast food have all undermined the simple healthy diet of centuries.

Fiji has banned fatty mutton flaps and Pacific leaders have called on this country to limit the exports of such food. But Oliver is tackling the matter from another angle.

A television series, Real Pasifik, beginning next month, follows him around six Pacific island nations, including this one, as he meets local "food heroes", who link him up with the local cooking traditions that have been elbowed aside by the values of a tourism industry largely headquartered in other countries.

Much Pacific food gets a bad rap because the various islands are diffident about celebrating their food, says Oliver. More than 70 per cent of the food that tourists are served is imported, and the devaluing of local food has created the wrong impression about island cuisine.

"If the food is badly perceived, it affects the cultural sense of self-worth," he says. "Pacific food has been insulted roundly for years. It's not been intentional, but because I work with Pacific food producers I can see that it has had a really powerful effect on their international trade.

"There's nowhere else in the world where people go and say, 'We don't want your food, we want someone else's.' That's a pretty deep cultural insult, actually."

If the first episode, set in the Cook Islands, is any guide, Oliver is seeking to give a smart and healthy twist to local standards. He meets James Raukete, raised in New Zealand and trained as a chef, who has returned to the Cooks to learn about his ancestral culture. Raukete takes the classic Cook Islands dish, pink potato salad - which typically uses lots of imported frozen vegetables and oodles of high-calorie American mayonnaise - and revamps it with local sweet potatoes and reduced coconut milk.

Adimaimalaga Tafuna'i, the executive director of the Samoan organisation Women in Business Development, gave me an example of an idea sparked during filming. Samoa exports small misiluki bananas in dried form to New Zealand but was struggling to find a local market. Now, Dora Rossi, the co-owner and chef at Paddles Restaurant in Apia, has adapted sticky date pudding into sticky misiluki pudding - a real hit with locals and tourists alike.

"My choices as a restaurateur and chef can influence our small nation's economy," Rossi said. "People can indulge in delicious food and support Samoa's food growers at the same time."

*Real Pasifik screens on TV1 at 4pm Saturdays from September 4

Excellent customer service is a byproduct of excellent leadership, and no one knows that more than those in the restaurant industry.

All small-business owners-especially in the food service industry-will tell you that their customers have changed in the last five years. If true, then doesn't it logically follow that the meaning of customer service has also changed in the last five years? So how do we effectively redefine the meaning of service in this digitally driven, faster-harder-smarter-more world we now live and work in? 

To many restaurant owners, service is the primary asset of their brand, a business's invisible product. They believe that good service makes a meal taste even better. To other food service operators, service is no longer the main priority-quality, value, speed and accuracy are the most important parts of the transaction. Service is nice, but not a necessary asset.

The truth is that service is not really a transactional act, and therefore it can't be given. Service is a byproduct of consistently executing the other key processes that make a business successful-like hiring right, training well, suggestive selling and practicing servant leadership.
Hospitality or Customer Service?

Most restaurant owners and their customer-facing team members confuse service with hospitality, but they're different: Service fulfills a need, but hospitality fulfills people. You can get service from an ATM or a vending machine, but you can't get hospitality. Hospitality is the key deliverable that distinguishes great food service operations from average retail ones.

For instance, if you buy a vacuum cleaner at a store-no matter how hard you looked for someone to help you, or how you were treated by the employees-you still have a vacuum cleaner when you get home. So even if there was no discernible service accompanying the purchase, you still have a tangible something after the transaction.

But when you patronize a restaurant, what do you have after you eat? Only memories. While menu, value, décor and cleanliness all play a part, it's service and hospitality that makes that memory positive and drives customer loyalty and repeat business.
The Core of Great Customer Service

So what are the key drivers of customer satisfaction? Here are the three basics that every industry, not just the food industry, should follow.
 
1. Focus on ROC, not ROI

Repeat business is the linchpin of profitability in any successful business. Everyone is familiar with ROI, but a lesser-known and more critical metric is ROC-Return of Customer. "Will you come back?" and "Would you tell your friends to try us?" are the two most important questions relative to the customer experience. If the answer is yes to both, you've delivered on expectations and achieved ROC. If not, you haven't. It's that simple.

2. Hire Great People

Repeat business will always be dependent on the weakest people you allow on your teams. Make your customers' experience consistently exceptional by hiring and developing great people. When you hire great people-despite the cost, despite the effort, despite the commitment-great things always happen. Compete first for talent, then customers.
3. Consistency Is Key

Know what customers hate about patronizing your business? Inconsistency in quality, service, speed and accuracy. So when customer service problems reoccur in your business-before you blame your people-evaluate the likelihood of a short-circuit in a system or process. Bad service issues routinely arise when you hurry-hire the wrong people, cleanliness isn't a priority, an understaffed or undertrained team messes up orders, or inefficient scheduling causes you to be short a server at peak hours. This makes customer-facing team members stressed, swamped and snippy, so they smile, serve and ultimately sell less.

Habitually consistent good service is the result of systems that:

•     Foster a caring culture
•     Make positivity and fun part of the core business practices
•     Educate and encourage teams daily to be better than they were yesterday

Don't forget that excellent service begins with leadership, the notion that "my customer is anyone who isn't me." The fact is that the way you treat your team members determines how they'll treat your customers. Model the way, every day. Apply constant, gentle pressure every day to improve.

Restaurant operators are stewards of special moments in customers' lives. The food service industry's shared goal of giving care and sustenance to strangers and regulars alike as part of our business model is what sets us apart from retail and manufacturers. Service is our invisible product.

Business travellers and holiday makers are voting with their feet; hotels with green credentials are reaping the rewards.

By Timothy Shivers

Despite our dubious 100% Pure claims, many of New Zealand's hotels are stepping up as key players in sustainability and environmental issues. Going green is the new standard for hotels, as they seek to improve their practices and answer the call of a growing environmental consciousness.

Recent data shows that a majority of business travellers are conscious of the sustainability practices of the hotels they stay in. According to market research firm Timetric's 'Global Business Traveller Survey,' 47 per cent of respondents said that staying in green-certified hotels is considered "important," while seven per cent said it to be "extremely important."

Qualmark, New Zealand tourism's official quality assurance organisation, works with hotels across the country to ensure they are creating a quality experience for their customers, while rating and rewarding those with environmental policies.
Qualmark's general manager Tim Keeling says: "Being a responsible tourism operator means having a balanced approach to economic, social, and environmental priorities; and mitigating any negative impacts that may occur as a result of tourism."

One brand that has seen significant improvements in recent years is Hilton Worldwide. With over 3600 hotels in 81 countries, Hilton has created a five-year (2009-2014) goal to reduce CO2 emissions, waste output, and water and energy consumption.
Using a measurement system known as LightStay, Hilton calculates sustainability practices across the global portfolio to then learn and improve on ways to increase performance.

"If you don't start to look at the way you do things, it's a disaster. But if you do start to improve the way you do things the impact we can have on the environment is massive," says Cristina Magni, marketing and communication manager at Hilton Auckland.
Some of Hilton Auckland's sustainability practices include fitting Virtual Energy Burner Management systems to the boilers, fitting water reduction aerators to all guest room hand basins, LED lighting changes, and selecting sustainable and organic ingredients in their Fish restaurant.

Another hotel in Auckland that has stepped up to the plate is Jet Park Airport Hotel. While the most common environmental policies across the board include dual-flush toilets, flow restrictions on water heads, waste disposal systems and LED lighting, Jet Park has installed a solar panel farm on their property which provides energy for heating water for their entire North Wing, slashing the amount of gas consumption.

The company's staff has also completed over 120 plus hours of volunteer service to the Kokako Conservation Project in the Hunua Ranges, a community service project that helped them win the Qualmark Environmental Initiative Award this year.

When asked why they have taken such great strides for the environment, general manager Jeeva Nanthan says it's a social responsibility to care for the community and care for the future: "It's about being more ethical."

By Kyle Caldwell - www.Neighborinneed.org

The guy who fixes my appliances here in Atlanta is named Jerry. He is a marketing genius. I doubt he is aware of this, however.

Jerry is a quiet and unassuming man. He starts in the early morning and has been at my house fixing the stupid handle of my refrigerator at 8 o’clock at night. Jerry’s appliance repair business is slammed every single day. If you ask anyone in my neighborhood who to call, all you hear is “Jerry”. I can only imagine that, despite his meek demeanor and utter lack of flashiness, Jerry is a millionaire.

Jerry spends exactly zero dollars on marketing. He wears a uniform similar to that of the Maytag repairman, complete with thick work boots and a pocket protector. His shirt says, “Jerry”. Other than that, he does not even shell out for a sign on his truck that says, “Appliance Repair”.

Why waste the money? Jerry advertises with customer service. Jerry wins with graciousness. He is delightful. “Mr. Caldwell”, he said on another visit, “I can flush your water lines if you want me to, but really, I think if you just turn the temperature up in the unit two degrees, the lines won’t freeze, and your water will work tomorrow. Call me if I’m wrong, but that should do it.” I am gasping on the inside. Jerry is standing in my kitchen at 7:30 at night telling me NOT to spend any money with him. I even offer a meager service fee out of pure guilt and he says, “No, thank you. I am glad to help. See you next time.” He packs and leaves.

Is that marketing? Oh, yes. And you have the same opportunity with every customer, every day.
The magic word here is “delight”. Notice the magic word is not “satisfy”. The distinction between the two words is huge – and it’s what a lot of Atlanta companies miss entirely. How many offer “100% Guarantees” for your ‘delightedness’ ? Uh, none.

Delight happens with you surprise someone in a good way. But, you have to be available to the opportunity to create an unexpected moment that makes the customer grin. Delight is so not the same as satisfaction. It’s another universe completely. It’s (practically) free advertising for your business that is as sticky and indelible as anything you could ever buy on Atlanta Radio, TV or Newspaper. It’s better than Google. You can’t buy it at all. You have to live it.

The heating and air guy…. “Mr. Caldwell, I saw that your filter was dirty when I was repairing that pilot light, so I swapped it out for you – and I left a couple of more for you in the basement, so you won’t have to remember to run to the store to get them. No charge.” Grin.

The Plumber… “Mr. Caldwell, I know you called about the water heater, but I a saw the valve on the line was rusty, and I had an extra, so I switched it out for you. No charge. We appreciate your business.” Grin.

The Shoe Store Cashier – “I noticed your little boy’s laces were worn out, so I threw another pair in the bag for you. That’s on me. Thanks for coming in.” Awesome. Delightfully awesome.
You spend a lot of time training your people in customer service. But do you ever talk about delighting your customers? Do you have a budget for delight? Are your techs, reps, cashiers and managers empowered to do something delightful? Would they be able to spot the chance to delight a customer when they saw one? IS DELIGHT A PART OF YOUR CULTURE?
If not, you are missing out on the best repeat and referral generating advertising source available.

Delighted customers call you first every time, you own a permanent space in their minds and they cannot wait to refer you to anyone and everyone. Delighted people don’t haggle or shop your bid to your competition. Delighted people are glad to pay their bill.

Building a culture of delight in your business will be the best advertising money can’t buy.

This from Radio New Zealand:

The Chinese embassy in New Zealand says it is improper for the New Zealand government to make negative comments about the new MA-60 aircraft China gifted to Tonga.

New Zealand has suspended eight million US dollars in tourism aid to Tonga amid safety concerns with the MA-60, and has issued a travel advisory against New Zealanders using it.

A Chinese embassy spokesperson, Xing Yuchun, says Chinese and New Zealand civil aviation authorities have an agreement to recognise the safety certification of each other’s aircraft - so any comments made about the aircraft should have been communicated with China first.

Ms Xing says the comments have had a negative impact on China’s aviation reputation.

She says the MA-60 was gifted to Tonga as a friendly gesture, and because it needed a new aircraft.

Ms Xing says it is strictly designed, produced and verified by Chinese Civil Aviation standards and International Civil Aviation Authority safety standards.

She says any accidents involving MA-60s have been caused by improper operation.

 The recent Fonterra contamination is unlikely to damage New Zealand's "100% Pure" image in the long run, Tourism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy says.

Speaking in Auckland today, McEvoy said controversial events often played out bigger, or caused more sensation, in the country where they took place.

Other countries, including China, would still see New Zealand as a green destination, he said.

"I think New Zealand's clean, green credentials will outlive the controversy."

However, if things like the Fonterra contamination happened more often New Zealand's claim to 100% Pure could be damaged, McEvoy said.

Following the contamination, Britain's Daily Mail Online said New Zealand's 100% Pure claims were "pure manure" while our largest trading partner, via the Chinese Government's Xinhua news agency, called our national brand a "festering sore".

Despite the recent smear on the country's pure image, New Zealand still had a good claim to the 100% Pure slogan which was launched by Tourism New Zealand in 1999, McEvoy said.

"It's one of the great global tourism campaigns."

The world did not naturally talk about New Zealand and Australia, but campaigns like 100% Pure had helped put New Zealand on the map, he said.

Tourism New Zealand general manager of corporate affairs Chris Roberts said the 100% Pure slogan was purely a tourism campaign used to promote New Zealand as a visitor destination.

Fonterra's recent food safety concerns had not impacted on New Zealand's reputation as a visitor destination, he said.

Faifax

The New Zealand Tourism Sector Outlook report released today by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) showed the long-term outlook for the tourism sector was positive, MBIE said.

The forecast showed visitor numbers and spending were expected to grow 18 per cent between now and 2019, MBIE said.

Roberts said the 100% Pure slogan was not used to represent New Zealand in totality and was not used by other New Zealand businesses to promote their products.

"The campaign has never been a 'New Zealand' campaign."

Roberts said, however, it had been identified that New Zealand needed a way to promote itself.

Work had been under way since 2012 to develop the "New Zealand Story" for this purpose, he added.

But McEvoy said despite the 100% Pure campaign officially belonging to Tourism New Zealand it had become part of the way the world viewed all aspects of New Zealand.

"It's an outcome of the success and notoriety of the campaign."

McEvoy said consumers had embraced the clean, green image but now might be a good time for the New Zealand trade sector to look at creating a campaign to tell its own story.
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Tourism Australia used the slogan "there's nothing like Australia" and the business sector used the slogan "Australia unlimited", he said.

The two slogans were different, but complementary, he added.

Since I deal with the smaller properties of the hotel business, I shall concentrate on the loneliest person in our business that being the night auditor. I always make it a practice to come down from the room to talk to the auditor. You would be surprised at the wealth of information you can acquire just by talking to him/ her. When I started many moons ago, I did my share of night audits, and even though I found the shift difficult, it did provide a clear snapshot of the hotel business. It also showed me that the managers, and owners don’t take the auditor seriously. I noticed that the pay is terrible, and the responsibility is huge. Today, some 36 years later, this mind set still exists. I see auditors especially in medium properties working alone. The owners have entrusted a 7 million dollar property to a low wage earner, now does that make sense to you? It never has to me. The auditor is a person of many talents; he/she must be a clerk, plumber, electrician, counselor, referee, and much more. He/she has to solve problems, answer phones and listen to guest complaints.
Night Auditors and Safety

I have preached this situation many times to owners that there should be at least 2 people on at night. It is for safety reasons if nothing else. I get the same story- payroll - the property does not need two people on at night. I will tell you that things happen, and auditors are at risk. The following is strictly my opinion, but owners fail to provide what I would call reasonable safety for those employees that work the audit alone.
The Incident

There was an incident in a hotel in California. I had hired a night auditor for this 89 room hotel in Inglewood. The neighborhood was not the best, but the hotel did a great business. There was a night security guard that patrolled the property. It was her misfortune that on the first night of her new job, that 2 persons came in and decided to rob the place. Well, I should say it became their misfortune; they had no sooner announced their intentions, and before they knew what was happening the auditor (Female, Egyptian) came across the desk and crippled both would be robbers. Security arrived just seconds after and handcuffed the robbers. I was later told that the auditor was in the Egyptian army and adept at hand to hand combat. She was not about to have these robbers take anything. By no means is this recommended, but things do happen in LA.
What Constitutes Reasonable Care?

I write this to show that there is a certain danger in this position. Auditors deserve reasonable protection, just like guests do. I can only make recommendations to my clients that have this particular problem; it is up to them to realize what value they place on their employees. Auditors are a special breed, they are hard to find, and keep. I still to this day see a single person behind the desk at early hours when entering a smaller property. In the auditors eyes I may not look like a robber, but as far as I know there is no definition of what type of person makes a robber - just because I am wearing a suit does not mean that I can’t hold up a clerk. I still advocate to owners and managers bite the extra payroll bullet and have two persons on at night.

By feature writer Alan Campbell

The common refrain in the business world today is that customers buy from those they "know, like and trust." The difficult part for many businesses is figuring out how to go about gaining that long-term trust.

According to a survey from About.com, 84 percent of customers say companies have to first prove that they are trustworthy before giving them their business. This is difficult for many businesses, especially those with policies that put them in direct conflict with customers. Don Peppers, bestselling author and cofounder of Peppers & Rogers Group, a customer-centric management consulting firm, writes that too many companies "eagerly look forward to the added revenues produced by customers making mistakes, overlooking things or simply not paying attention. They may not technically 'cheat' their customers, but they still can't be trusted." 

Here are seven reasons your customers don't trust you and what to do about it:

1. You don't listen when customers call, write or post. Many small businesses don't answer phone messages the same day, or they set up an automated email response that says a customer's inquiry will be answered within 72 hours. Also, a number of companies don't respond when customers post comments on social media and review sites like Yelp. Solution: Your company needs to monitor all customer communications channels to ensure responses are made in a very short period of time.

2. Returns and refunds are not easy or prompt. You make it too difficult to return a product or stop using your service. When the customer finally reaches you, there's a delay in receiving a refund or the service period ends. Solution: While it may be counterintuitive, make it easy for customers to stop using your service or get a refund for your product. If they sign a long-term contract, make it easy for them to get out if they are dissatisfied. This can be a positive experience for the customer and take away any fear of doing business with you again.

3. Your products or services don't work as promised. Your marketing material unintentionally misleads the customer, and your website "embellishes the truth." As a result, customers are disappointed after their purchase. Solution: Only promise what you can absolutely deliver. Review your marketing material with recent customers to see if the brand promise lived up to their expectations.

4. You don't really like your customers. Inside your company, you talk behind your clients' back about how much you dislike them-maybe even call them names.Solution: Customers can feel this negative attitude through interactions with your employees. Value your customers and appreciate how solving their problems grows your company. Don't say anything about customers behind their back that you would not say directly to them.

5. You charge customers for their "mistakes." You take advantage of your customers by, say, not warning them about a late charge that may be coming.Solution: Warn customers of any fees they may incur in advance of when they might happen. This will make it feel like you are working with them instead of against them.

6. You charge add-on fees that the customer thought was included in the purchase. While no one likes to be surprised, most customers will pay for value.Solution: Don't "nickel and dime" a customer with additional fees, but instead provide an overall price that includes these extras. Before the purchase, be very clear on what the price includes and what will cost extra.

7. You don't allow your customers to post reviews on your site. You want your customers to trust you, but you don't trust them enough to post unfiltered reviews on your website to help new buyers. Solution: Customers now are influenced more by peer reviews than your company advertising. Depending on your business, customer reviews are now a required feature.

Source: OPENForum By Barry Moltz

We recently started a weddings business to augment our Tourism Marketing Group. Enquiries have been fantastic since we launched on the 20th of July and the specialisation in Samoa, Cook Islands and Vanuatu has been right on. The decision not to offer Fiji is an interesting one. Ask us about it!

The weddings site fits with our strategy to supply third party business to our customers and also to build our brand. The brand is an important part of future activity and represents a move forward. www.oceaniaweddings.co.nz is attracting more mature couples who want to go and get married with friends and family in a place that is idyllic, peaceful, memorable and totally laid back andd casual. Whether it be at the Return to Paradise Beach Resort and Spa in Samoa, or somewhere else in the big scheme of this, Oceania Weddings makes it happen. Check it out sometime.