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With its pristine beaches, exotic cultures, diverse natural beauty, pleasant climes and friendly people, the "Paradise on Earth" tag has come to be the Pacific Islands' biggest draw over the decades.
But in an increasingly demanding technology-driven world, industry analysts believe the region falls short in a number of factors that vitally contribute to the overall tourism experience that the seasoned tourist and holidaymaker has come to expect; even take for granted.
At a major international tourism development conference in Vanuatu late last year, aviation, hospitality, travel and tourism experts, as well as potential investors from all over the world, generally agreed that the Pacific Islands region has much ground to cover in several aspects of an industry that, at US$1.6 billion ($2 billion) annually, happens to be so vital for its collective economy.
Addressing this multiplicity of issues is the recently renamed south-pacific.travel (formerly the South Pacific Tourism Organisation or SPTO), an inter-governmental body formed in the early 1980s, charged with the development of the tourism sector in the region.
The name change reflects the increasing role that information and communication technologies now play in the travel sector, says New Zealander Tony Everitt, the organisation's Suva, Fiji-based CEO.
"Our vision is to create a virtual organisation, which is much bigger and more effective than the physical organisation located here," he adds.
In recent years, buying air tickets and holiday packages over the internet has been growing impressively across the world and Everitt is keen that the region catches up quickly.
The Pacific Islands continue to get the bulk of their visitors from Australia and New Zealand but Everitt is rolling out a number of initiatives to lure travellers from the United States, Europe and the fast-growing economies of Asia, particularly China and India. A delegation will represent the South Pacific at the China International Travel Mart in Kunming in November.
In the past year, south-pacific.travel launched the only Chinese language destination portal for the South Pacific and is about to follow up with a Japanese version. It has also launched nine special interest websites on fishing, diving, trekking, backpacking, cruising, romance, kayaking, bird watching and cultural activities, as well as a one-stop-shop online training programme for travel agents.
Showcasing different activities that the region offers and educating travel agents about them is an important move because the various destinations have so far not been adequately differentiated, leading to the perception that if you've seen one, you've seen them all. This sentiment was conveyed particularly by the US travel industry at the Vanuatu conference.
Everitt would like differentiation projected by the diversity of activities and the individual cultures of the destinations, but prefers a unified South Pacific Islands brand. "It's a great brand. We are urging our members in their marketing to use what we call the brand 'trinity': their own company brand, their country brand, and the South Pacific. These three things work in harmony," he says.
But even if differentiated with marketing campaigns that spell out the different experiences that Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia offer, convenient air links connecting the three sub-regions are virtually non-existent - thereby restricting the South Pacific experience to a solitary island nation and defeating the point of product differentiation.
It has been known for decades that bad air links between the islands have greatly undermined the tourism potential of the region as a whole. Hundreds of millions of tourism dollars are lost every year simply because a tourist who, after a variegated South Pacific cultural experience cannot simply hop from Nukualofa to Tarawa or from Apia to Port Vila without flying circuitously at a tremendous expense of money and time.
Everitt acknowledges that aviation continues to be a major challenge. But recent developments like smaller, more economical regional jets and the increasing willingness of Pacific Island governments to enter into joint ventures with airline companies in delivering better and cheaper air services may bring about changes in the near term.
This will not only help project the unified brand better but will also bring lesser-known destinations within easier reach, adding to the diversity of the experience. "As the total pie grows, up-and-coming destinations can take their share. We are working with destinations like Tuvalu and Kiribati to develop special interest markets like fishing and cruising, where they shine," says Everitt.
As the region's biggest tourism promoter, south-pacific.travel is almost completely relying on new media technologies and e-commerce tools to popularise the region and help achieve its US$2 billion-a-year target by 2010. Promoting the umbrella South Pacific brand is key in this exercise. "Our membership understands the value that a South Pacific approach adds to individual efforts. Tourism is one area where regionalism is alive and well," says Everitt.
None of these initiatives, though, will work well if the region as a whole does not seem to be what it actually portrays itself as: the ultimate peaceful paradise on earth, the last of its kind anywhere. But recent political events, almost all across the region, have put a question mark on that valuable, long-cherished regional attribute again and again.
