Transcript
PAULI AFELEE: Our people come over here and they are usually really interested in climate change. They usually just want to come and see the effects for themselves. We have a lot of, how would I put it, people who doubt climate change. We have people like that who come over and they want to see the effects for themselves so they can actually see that it's not a hoax. For the others who are more into research, they're the ones who actually go out into the outer islands and stay there for longer periods of time, compared to the visitor who just comes and stays for a couple of days or a week.
JENNY MEYER: And for those people who you might call climate change skeptics or non-believers, how do they respond to your country when they can see things, you know with their own eyes and feel how the country is struggling against things like rising sea levels?
PA: Well the most common response we get is, they ask us why we aren't doing more? We have to explain the situation and how Tuvalu as a nation we are very vocal about this issue at the world stage, especially our leaders. And that is reflected in that this is being taught also in our schools. So if you were to ask a little kid in primary school they would a general idea of what climate change is. And so we are doing our part but its one that's one of the most common responses we get from them.
JM: And how do you think you can turn things around in terms of the tourism numbers and start to attract more people to come and visit Tuvalu for themselves?
PA: For Tuvalu we don't really recommend mass tourism at the moment because we cannot cater, our natural resources cannot cater for mass tourism. So even though there's a push to increase our tourism numbers, it's more about catering for the type of tourist that can come here and actually learn about our way of life, how we are adapting, how we are facing climate change. So that's the kind of niche marketing effect we are in the process of looking at.
JM: And then would you hope that those people who do visit the country, you know given that its hard to get to and its expensive to visit, would you have hopes that they might help you share your message of the plight of the country.
PA: Exactly, very much so. I think tourism is one of the pillars of development that could be really utilised by our government to further develop our country. However at the moment with our plight against climate change, it has to be done in a way that is within the context of Tuvalu, what we have available, our resources, what we are capable of doing.
