Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Call for funding for American Samoa’s new tourism plan

Posted at 03:46 on 20 November, 2009 UTC

Consultants drawing up a long term tourism master plan for American Samoa have been urged to push for adequate funding for their proposals.

They have also told that they need to convince the government to stay out and let the private sector take charge of tourism.

The consultants have met with the Chamber of Commerce and the Governor’s Economic Advisory Council as they gather input for the plan.

The president of the Chamber, David Robinson, says there is some doubt about yet another plan for development because similar exercises in the past have been ignored.

“So there is a great deal of scepticism and I think now you have got an ideal opportunity with your master plan here to put it altogether for the long term with the emphasis on making sure that people from the private sector do look at the elements of the plan and say, this is a commercial opportunity for me, I’ll do this, and secondly that you can convince the government to provide some money for general tourist development.”

David Robinson of American Samoa’s Chamber of Commerce