24 April 2008
Victoria University has become a founding partner in an alliance aimed at harnessing the economic power of tourism to directly improve the living conditions in Pacific Island Countries.
The Oceania Sustainable Tourism Alliance (OSTA) will gather leaders from the non-governmental and private sector in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, to assist ten Oceania countries design and implement innovative tourism strategies that will fight poverty and foster long-term improvements for residents, their communities, and businesses.
VU Vice Chancellor Professor Elizabeth Harman will meet on Monday 28 April with Lelei LeLaulu, chairman of The Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific International (FSPI), the initiative's leading partner. Established more than 40 years ago, the FSPI is the oldest and largest secular network of non-governmental development organisations working at the grassroots in the region.
Professor Harman said VU was delighted to be part of an initiative which fully included local communities as stakeholders in the development of sustainable tourism in the Pacific Islands.
Mr LeLaulu, a former United Nations executive who helped in formulating the UN's Millennium Development Goals, said: "Tourism is the world's largest and fastest growing industry, and Victoria University's academic depth and wealth of experience in designing effective tourism models and policies will help Pacific island countries define how to best harness tourism to benefit their communities."
VU's Centre for Tourism and Services Research, led by Professor Leo Jago, will develop innovative tourism approaches and capacity-building training for OSTA countries, which are: Timor-Leste; Fiji; Kiribati; Palau; Papua New Guinea; Samoa; the Solomon Islands; Tonga; Tuvalu; and Vanuatu.
Mr LeLaulu said while the island nations of the Pacific were wealthy in natural beauty, tourism held the most promise for accomplishing sustainable development for the region, as it represented the largest voluntary transfer of resources from the 'haves' to the 'have nots' in history.
"Australian tourists leave more money in the Pacific islands than the Australian and New Zealand governments give in development aid, and we want to ensure these visitors feel their holidays can also improve the daily lives of people in these destinations. We all know how destructive non-sustainable tourism can be."
OSTA is based on a recently established Global Sustainable Tourism Alliance in the USA, which is funded by USAID in partnership with the private sector. Mr LeLaulu will meet later this week in Canberra with Australian Government officials to explore ways Australian aid might support the OSTA initiative.
An advocate of linking tourism and climate change adaptation, Mr LeLaulu is a charter member of the Carbon Poverty Reduction Initiative which includes the World Bank and leading conservation and development organisations, to plan the replanting of degraded areas to reduce carbon in the atmosphere.
He is also President of the Washington-based Counterpart International, which has sustainable tourism projects in more than 60 countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and distributes up to US$100 million worth of humanitarian assistance every year to needy communities worldwide.
Mr Lelei LeLaulu will be available for interview on Monday 28 April afternoon or Tuesday 29 April morning on 0429 662 020.
For more information about Victoria University's involvement in OSTA, contact Professor Terry De Lacey, Centre for Tourism and Services Research,
Victoria University Ph: (03) 9919 5349 or 0429 662 020.
VU Media Contact: Andy Gash, Senior Media Officer,
Marketing and Communications Department, Victoria University
Ph: (03) 9919 4950 or 0411 255 900.
