‘Tourism Will Be Top Earner’ -Hall

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A budget work plans for the American Samoa Visitors Bureau has been presented to the House Government Operations Committee.

According to the chairman of the ASVB Board Roy Hall Jr., tourism will be the largest economic earner for the territory in the next ten years, generating new revenue for American Samoa, and this is not federal money.

Hall says when new monies from tourism are injected into the economy new jobs are created and the standard of living is raised.

For the last five years, the Bureau submits an annual budget request of $2.8 million but each time the funding is reduced.

So the Bureau has to wait on what the Fono and government endorses so they can work their way around the approved budget.

The bureau’s budget from the time it was established in 2008 has ranged from as low as $200,000 to as high as $900,000.

For the current fiscal year, the bureau’s budget is $700,000.

According to Board Chairman Hall the ASVB has

A top priority of the Bureau is to make American Samoa a potential tourist attraction for global tourists.

The ASVB work plan lists all the international trade fairs that the bureau attends, international media visits which have promoted American Samoa through articles in the US, New Zealand, and Australia, the number of cruise ship visits and familiarization tours by travel agents in the US, Australia, New Zealand, American Samoa and Samoa.

For the future, the ASVB aims to increase travelers to American Samoa, maintain the level of cruise ship visits to 20 per year with 40,000 plus passengers, identify and train 20 new tourism businesses, continue promotion of American Samoa to wholesalers and build and support local events that would entice tourists such as the People, Land Air and Sea celebration, Mosooi Festival, Flag Day, I’a Lapo’a, Rugby Sevens, Samoana Jazz festival, Kilikiti and other events.

It also aims to continue working with Samoa on the Samoa Islands Brand as well as with the South Pacific Tourism Organization and seek federal funds to carry out more programs to promote American Samoa as a viable tourist destination.

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