PRO€INVEST is an EU-ACP programme that provides technical and financial support to organisations representing the ACP private sector in their mission of sustainable investment promotion. PRO€INVEST has been supporting the tourism sector in the Pacific since 2005. A Think Tank was formed to reflect needs and possible solutions. The initial South Pacific Tourism Think Tank initiative was deliberately made up of institutional representatives from South-Pacific.travel (South Pacific Tourism Organisation SPTO) & Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) & International Finance Corporation (IFC) & Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) as well as involved individuals. The South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) is the mandated inter-governmental organisation for the tourism sector in the South Pacific. In the early 1980’s an informal association of South Pacific national tourism organisations was formed, which subsequently became the SPTO. SPTO is an organisation with a membership that represents both the public and private sectors. Current member countries include The Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, New Caledonia, Niue, Papua New Guinea, People's Republic of China, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Private sector members include over 200 major regional tourism operators.
The project will assist Tourism organisation, and other potential stakeholders, to consolidate ideas and suggestions for a final dossier resulting in the call for Tourism proposals.
The project is aiming at the following specific objectives:
- Gather existing information at the level of Pro€Invest, PATA for PROFIT 2006/Conference and SPTO for the workshops held in 2007;
- Make a list of additional needed contacts in the region;
- Meet with main members of the Think Tank and collect their views;
- Identify and liaise with other projects on Tourism in the region so that they are taken in consideration and integrated in a tourism strategy;
- Provide guidance and support to the drafting of a Large Scale Tourism project.