  |
| |||||
 |
HOME 
LIST YOUR PROPERTY
MY TRAVELMAXIA
|
 |
||||
|
|
 |
|
 | ||
| Tonga Resorts, Hotels & Travel | Sunday, October 12, 2008 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Search by Map Search by Country: 
Australia
American Samoa
Cook Islands
Fiji Islands
French Polynesia
Micronesia
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Niue
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tonga
VanuatuFiji Resorts Fiji Holidays Vanuatu Holidays 
Special Interests:
Adventure
Budget
Beachfront
Bed & B'fast
Business
Cruises/Charters
Diving
Eco-Tourism
Family
Fishing
Golf
Honeymoons
Luxury
Self Catering
Surfing
Weddings
|
|
Rates shown are per person in currency indicated based on twin/double occupancy. [Currency Converter] Unless otherwise stated, packages do NOT include airfares.
'EUA FEATURES IN INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE The influential international tourism magazine Compass has featured 'Eua in this month's edition. The article was compiled with the help of the Tonga Tourism Project and highlights the eco tourism values of 'Eua. The magazine is subscribed by tourism CEOs around the world and it is published out of Hong Kong. Under the headline of: Empire of the Sun it says that eco-friendly development is a way of life in the Kingdom of Tonga, one of the South Pacific’s most unspoilt holiday destinations. The three page article begins by saying: "Relatively undeveloped though it might be, Tonga's tourism industry embraced the tenants of ecotourism long before the catchall term became a buzzword. In fact, Tonga was the first Pacific Island nation to create marine parks or sanctuaries and tourism in the Kingdom is almost totally reliant on the sustainability of its natural environment and culture as well as the development of popular soft adventure products. Yet, Tongans don't see themselves as part of an organised ecotourism industry; instead, the people of this grouping of 176 islands are just doing what they have always done. Over the past few years, the Tonga Visitors Bureau has focused its attention on promoting the Kingdom's outstanding culture, history and marine environments as well as bringing new tourism products such as the islands of 'Eua and Tofua slowly into the marketplace. 'Eua is the second largest island in the Tongatapu group and is, perhaps, the one place where the tag 'eco tourism' fits best. 'Eua has a completely different character from Tongatapu. It is rugged and mountainous, with Tonga's largest areas of natural bush land and rainforest, and it is great for hiking, climbing and abseiling." (Source: Tonga Visitors Bureau Update - August 23rd, 2002) ON A SANDY BEACH IN HA'APAI "They often see whales. On this particular morning, though, there were seven or eight porpoises a little ways offshore, and one of the Tongan girls at the resort began calling pele pele pele and the porpoises actually came closer, as if on call. The two middle-aged New Zealand couples who were staying at Sandy Beach Resort just couldn't believe it. But that's Ha'apai for you ... so far from the madding crowd it gets a little bit unbelievable". (Source: Royal Tongan Magazine - Extract of article by Kim Gravelle) TONGA'S US$1M WHALE OF A TIME While most South Pacific countries are pondering how to boost tourism incomes, the tiny South Pacific Kingdom of Tonga is having a US$1m (AU$1.9m) whale of a time. And its all because of migrating Antarctic cetaceans (whales) that stop in its warm waters during the months of June, July and August to frolic, mate, and give birth to young conceived a year earlier... and attract thousand of whale-watchers. Pio Emosi Manoa, from Greenpeace Australia-Pacific, told the third biennial South Pacific Tourism Conference in Port Vila that while whale-watching was worth US$1m a year to Tonga whose northern island of Vavau was almost a beacon for whales, world-wide whale-watching was worth US$1b (AU$1.9b) for some 492 communities in 87 countries. Mr Manoa, who was speaking in support of a South Pacific Whale Sanctuary (already rejected by the International Whaling Commission despite support from Australia and New Zealand and 20 other nations,) said the concept whale sanctuaries was not new, and that two already existed in the Indian and Southern Oceans. "The proposed South Pacific Whale Sanctuary is a logical step towards protecting whales in their breeding grounds," he said. "A live whale gives a lot more benefits than a dead one to nations in the South Pacific as a generator of tourism over 10,000,000 people went whale-watching world-wide last year, and the figure is increasing by over 12% a year." Mr Manoa suggested that Niue, French Polynesia, Guam, New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu all had the opportunity to develop whale-watching tourism operations. "Every live whale brings US$1.6m (AU$3m) in its lifetime to Tonga," he said. "With up to 500 whales passing through different islands in a season, you can see the value whale-watching can bring to the South Pacific." (Source: SPTO, September 2001) |
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
- Resorts
- VIDEO AVAILABLE
- SLIDESHOW AVAILABLE
TONGA FEATURE
