Vaka Moana-a road map for the South Pacific economy

Abstract

The boom in heritage tourism gives a forceful economic connotation to the World Decade's legacy and sets the stage for shifting the focus of its implementation from correcting economic development to driving it. My proposal for employing Vaka Moana as a catalyst for the South Pacific economy provides a sequel to the World Decade that would accomplish this shift in focus. I identify three core steps of the value-adding process, in the context of creating a master-plan for heritage tourism. The first step is to define the multi-layered dimension of the destination's heritage. A site's heritage can often be connected with natural and cultural themes that are meaningful within the size of a country, or even a region. It might go back in time and link tangible attractions to intangible legends or beliefs. Therefore heritage product development should be approached as a dynamic process in which cooperation is essential. The second step is to equip the heritage resources with conservation guarantees. The tourism and hotel industry has a solid business reason to invest in conservation to make it effective in protecting the attractions that are now vital to the tourist enterprise. To maintain its investment, the industry needs the support of a pro-active and well-enforced conservation strategy. I would argue that the global megatrend of heritage tourism creates an unprecedented opportunity-particularly in developing countries-for launching and sustaining national and regional conservation strategies, with the backing of the tourism and hotel industry's investment in management. The third step is to make provisions for continuous diversification and upgrading of the heritage experience. In heritage tourism, the experience of the heritage resources is the central pillar of tourism. The heritage experience is, in turn, catalysed by interpretation. A forward-looking plan for experience management should identify universities and research institutes willing to share the knowledge they advance about the natural and cultural resources in return for funding for future research, and invite indigenous people to share their cultural knowledge regarding reciprocal benefits from the tourism industry. This would offer long-term protection of the uniqueness and educational value of the heritage product.