More than15 cruise ship vendors will be selling their locally made handicrafts and products at the Fagatogo Malae when the cruise ship, the "Marina" — with over 2,000 passengers and crew — calls in to the Port of Pago Pago today, while about a dozen vendors will remain on the dock.

The decision to use the malae came late last week after close collaboration between the American Samoa Visitors Bureau and the Department of Parks and Recreation, which oversees the ground maintenance of the Fagatogo Pavilion and the malae.

Due to ongoing busy cargo operations at the main dock, the Department of Port Administration has reduced the area where vendors are able to set up their tents for cruise ship arrivals and the change remains in effect until further notice, according to Port Administration deputy director Chris King.

Asked if the government has identified any town area location for the cruise ship vendors who cannot set up tents on the main dock, Visitors Bureau deputy director Vaitoa Hans Langkilde said tents for more than 15 vendors will be set up at the Fagatogo Malae.

“There will also be a shopping shuttle bus for tourists off the cruise ship that will depart from the gate of the main dock heading to the Fagatogo Market Place, the Fagatogo Malae, and then to the Suigaula o le Atuvasa in Utulei,” Vaitoa told Samoa News last Friday morning.

He says this is the set up for now, until further notice. As of last Friday, the Visitors Bureau was working on hopefully getting a group to entertain at the Fagatogo malae, or have a band there for today’s cruise ship arrival.

“We are also working on this — entertainment at the Fagatogo malae — for the next cruise ship arrival on Mar. 18,” Vaitoa explained and expressed sincere appreciation from the Visitors Bureau for all of its ASG and private sector partners who are working together to ensure that "we continue to develop and promote our tourism industry, including our cruise ship visitors.”

Meanwhile, Port Administration director Taimalelagi Dr. Claire Poumele has responded to complaints from some cruise ship vendors who have been affected by the reduced area to set up tents on the main dock, and others who have complained that Port is not supportive of tourism development.

“For the record, Port Administration strongly believes ‘Tourism is everybody's business',"she said early last week in a media statement before the decision by Visitors Bureau to set up tents on the Fagatogo Malae. “We believe this; we have supported tourism activities and we have exerted much effort to think outside the box.”

From the onset of the Lolo administration in 2013, Port Administration has been challenged by the governor and lieutenant governor “to think outside the box in our plans and projects. Thus, take a look at the airport, arrival and departure areas and witness the difference,” she pointed out.

She said the beautiful billboards of Territory attractions was an initiative of the Port, adding that the board outside of seaport that had graffiti on it for years was also changed to provide tourists with information of attractions on island — another initiative of the Port.

“We use the intercom of the Port to play local music when the cruise ship arrives, another initiative of the Port,” she said and noted that the band which plays there was the idea of local businesswoman Fiapaipai Fruean, whose company — Nana's — had contracted for clean up of the airport.

The new ramp and covered walkway from the aircraft is another project to enhance the Pago Pago International Airport, which is the first place many tourists arrive, aside from the seaport.

Regarding concerns from some vendors that cruise ship tourists won’t go to Utulei Beach if their tents are set up there, Taimalelagi asked, “Is it an inconvenience for the tourists to walk outside of the main dock to Fagatogo or the Suigaula to purchase gifts from the local vendors? We soon will know.”

(Samoa News should note that tents were set up for cruise ship vendors at Suigaula o le Atuvasa a few years ago, but it appeared that didn't work well, and some vendors complained at the time that they didn’t get much business.)

Additionally, could this idea of walking to Fagatogo or Utulei — which was also a suggestion from many community members — become a great idea? she asked, “We will soon find out. But this was a suggestion from a few creative minds, to set up the tents for the vendors on the malae at Fagatogo and work with the Arts Council to have local groups entertain at the Pavilion. Make Fagatogo — not the Port — the tourist attraction.”

“The tents at the wharf were perhaps a great idea ten years ago but can we think outside of the box? Who knows maybe someone will start a trolley business and take the tourists on an excursion from Fatumafuti [village] to the canneries,” she pointed out.

“Tourists might want to purchase a case of tuna, get a StarKist or Tri-Marine cap and have a story to tell of the Tuna Territory,” she said.