Transcript
The marketing director of Niue tourism Felicity Bollen said "The Rock of Polynesia" as locals fondly refer to it has seen massive growth since 2009 when its government and the New Zealand aid programme started prioritising tourism development.
"Together we have increased visitor numbers by more than 50 percent and visitor spend by more than 80 percent. Annual tourism numbers and tourism's contribution to the economy have doubled since 2009."
The numbers were enough to convince New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English who admitted that as finance minister in 2009 he had been "a bit of a skeptic" when the then Foreign Minister Murray McCully told him Niue needed significant upgrades and investment in its accommodation and tourist facilities.
"So I must say it is very satisfying to come now after all this time to this spectacular place to see the quality of the facilities that are here."
Niue's premier Sir Toke Talagi acknowledged the concept was a little out of left field but said he believed it was the right fit for Niue.
"Sometimes I get accused of running Niue as a business. Unfortunately this is a business and therefore investments of this kind are the things that I believe we should be doing to enable us to build a economy which is vibrant and dynamic."
Felicity Bollen from Niue Tourism believes the challenge is to grow the benefits from tourism whilst retaining Niue's small authentic and attractive appeal.
"Higher yield from a smaller number of visitors who share our values are more effective as a long term strategy for Niue than chasing high visitor numbers."
However Brendan Taylor the managing director of the Scenic Hotel Group, which runs the newly upgraded Matavai Resort believes in numbers and he has been pitching a plan that he believes could see visitor numbers increase dramatically for the entire South Pacific.
"If aid money went more into subsidising a domestic airline between all the islands and then linking into a major provider like Emirates you could actually bring a lot more volume in and move it around the Pacific. Once that happens the Pacific will just go off. It will be a destination in its own right."
Apart from Tourism New Zealand prime minister Bill English also announced $NZ5 million to help fund Niue connecting to the Manatua submarine cable between Samoa and French Polynesia.
And an additional $5 million dollars for installing solar panels, which he said will result in a state of the art generation and storage system for Niue and take its renewable generation to 40 percent by next year, up from the current 13 percent.