The South Pacific Tourism Organization (SPTO) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the South Pacific Cruise Alliance (SPCA) for greater cooperation on the development of the cruise tourism industry in the greater Pacific Islands region.

American Samoa is a founding member of SPTO and the territory is also a member of the SPCA, which includes seven other South Pacific countries and territories.

According to the American Samoa Visitors Bureau the SPCA has, for the past six years, organized and coordinated the Pacific’s attendance at Seatrade Cruise Global, the cruise industry's premier global event.

SPTO thanked SPCA for their conscientious efforts in coordinating the Pacific’s attendance at Seatrade, which is held in March of every year in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Visitors Bureau executive director David Vaeafe attended last month’s Seatrade event.

Globally, the cruise industry carries approximately 21 million passengers per year. Global cruise tourism is a US $50 billion industry accounting for about 24.2 million cruise visitors, based on total of forward bookings for 2016 in 2017.

Under the new agreement, SPTO, with the support of SPCA will take the lead in coordinating Pacific Island countries’ attendance at Seatrade, starting 2018.

As the leader in tourism marketing and development for the region, SPTO aims to collaborate with key cruise industry partners, government and private sector members such as SPCA to open up opportunities for existing and new cruise destinations in the Pacific and better coordinate priority areas of marketing and development under the Pacific Cruise Tourism Development Strategy (2015 – 2019), for the benefit of its members.

According to the Visitors Bureau’s April newsletter, SPTO will work with its Pacific Islands member governments towards creating enabling environments for the further development of cruise tourism industries.

The Pacific cruise industry has grown by 43% in the last three years and currently generates around US$640 million per year for the region. New Caledonia and Vanuatu lead the charge, making up 78% of the total number of cruise visits in the South Pacific.

Cruise tourism is an emerging industry in other Pacific Island countries like Tonga, where the Vuna Port in Nuku’alofa has recently undergone a multi-million dollar upgrade and is attracting more visiting cruise vessels.

Samoa is gearing towards further improvements to the Apia wharf and French Polynesia plans to build a new cruise port terminal by 2020.

SPTO is currently implementing the Pacific Cruise Tourism Development Strategy 2015 – 2019 in partnership with cruise liners and private sector partners.