Though the nations of South Pacific are mostly overlooked, they are enriched with excessive growth potential over the following few decades.
This is mainly due to the fact that China is pegged as one of the strongest aspects of their overall development. In a fresh report ready to be released on Thursday by World Bank, several crucial ways with an immense potential are likely to be realized over the next 25 years with an increased tourism scenario from the growing middle class of China.
The report is entitled Pacific Possible and is obtained early by the local news agency.
And, this report coincides with the Pacific Islands Forum this week in the region of Apia that is the capital of Samoa.
Kim Edwards, an economist at the World Bank who is among the principal contributors to the report asserted that welcoming tourists from China with open arms would be critical for the future of the economic success of the Pacific Island nations.
Edwards went on to add that in a majority of cases tourists have more appetite.
And, China seems to represent a growing middle class that provides an important market for the tourism sectors in these nations. He feels that the Pacific countries are required to leverage this market to a great extent, particularly of the various opportunities offered by the Chinese market.
The region is open and ready for more Chinese travellers.
The emphasis on the middle class of China is paramount, as per the report of World Bank.
This report has mentioned that the middle class of China is slated to increase from 54 million people who had been categorized as middle class in 2005 to more than 1 billion by 2030.
This overwhelming growth in tourism has been ushering in multiple pathways to increased tourism in the Pacific.
Taking advantage of such a golden opportunity is quite challenging for several nations. This is because apart from Papua New Guinea that has a populace of about 8.05 million as of 2016, none of the other 11 major countries in this region have a population of over 1 million. The second largest country, Fiji, comes roughly at 898,000 citizens as of 2016 that makes it secure finance for capital investment harder in this region.
The positive effects of the recent boom in Chinese tourism has been experienced in countries including Vanatu.
Experts feel that an interesting way to encourage this growth is by motivating a partnership between China and surrounding countries like Australia following an announcement that Hainan Airlines would soon be witnessing direct flights between Shenzhen in China and Cairns that is a northern Australian city.
Direct flights to this area from China are extremely essential to the growth of these countries as stated by the report of the World Bank.
The World Bank report further believes that the dependence of Pacific nations of tourist arrivals from places like New Zealand and Australia need to be curbed to enable them to reach their full potential. In order to reach this target, the report suggests that new routes should be launched between the Pacific Islands and the Chinese mainland, offering services to Chinese tourists, creating relationships with the wholesalers of China and most importantly, making the visa process simpler for Chinese tourists to visit these island getaways.
In 2016, China welcomed more than 122 million outbound tourists and this number is expected to skyrocket in the next few decades, the report has added.
