Beginning next month, visitors departing American Samoa by plane will be given a questionnaire that’s designed to collect new data on visitor spending, accommodations and their activities while in the territory.
The six month survey will ask visitors about where they stayed, what they did while here, what they enjoyed, what they want to do more of and also how they spent their money.
Director of the American Samoa Visitors Bureau, David Vaeafe, says the information will give a clearer measure of the value of tourism, and help the visitor industry channel marketing efforts, and organize activities for visitors.
He said the data would also help with measuring the territory’s gross Domestic Product and provide justification for the bureau’s budget funding which he pointed out has been declining the last few years.
The survey begins in December and will continue to May 31st, after which the information will be analyzed and a report of the findings given in June. |
Two officials from the South Pacific Tourism Organization, Research and Statistics Manager, Elizabeth Ragimana and Tourism Research Officer Jennifer Butukoro recently concluded a two-day training for four enumerators hired by the bureau to conduct the survey.
At the end of the training, the SPTO duo assisted trainees with a pilot study to test the questionnaire, survey designs and logistics at the airport.
As part of its technical assistance to American Samoa, SPTO provided the four enumerators recruited by the American Samoa Visitors Bureau with iPads for inputting and synchronizing verified data.
Visitors leaving on Hawaiian Air, Polynesian and Talofa Air will be asked to fill the questionaire.
The American Samoa Visitors Bureau is also working with the Department of Commerce on introducing a new immigration entry form that all travelers to the territory have to fill.
Vaeafe says at present US nationals and US citizens don’t have to fill the arrival form so that skews the visitor information collected by immigration.
In addition, visitors who arrive on cruise ships are not captured in Immigration’s arrival data and they represent about 40,000 to 50,000 tourist visitors per year.
He said a new arrival form has been finalized and had received the approval of Governor Lolo.
What needs to happen now is for the responsible department to release and implement it.
The new form must be filled in by all arrivals in the territory including US nationals and US citizens.
