Dear Editor, with no direct flights, unfortunately tourists will just go to other destinations which is a shame as the Cook Islands are such a beautiful place.

Many Aussie tourists are going to Fiji or Hawaii instead. The biggest issue is the midnight layover in Auckland Airport.

Whilst it is acknowledged that there is an increased environmental demand on already strained services, it is the tourism dollars which could be realistically invested to fix this problem with infrastructure investment. It’s a double-edged sword.

Mark Raymundo

(Facebook)

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We come to Raro every year and love having a one-night stopover in Auckland. The non-stop flight is exhausting. Thankfully we booked a month ago when the one-way flight was $600. Now the same flight is $1200. We’ll be back for a month in November.

Polly Woffle

(Facebook)

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Thinking about the profits or making an effort to provide good and better services to the tourists? Some of these tourists are not happy, I know I was down there in Rarotonga in June-July. Some of them complained about the lack of transportation, takeaways, cafes, bars or even the bus services to me. I told them I’m in the same boat with them. So who’s responsible for the lack of service?

Repeta Tunui Tereu

(Facebook)

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That’s the whole idea of going for vacation in Rarotonga, it’s not a perfect island with all what each tourist wants to have. In a perfect world they can have it all. Rarotonga and the Pa Enua offers what it can post pandemic. Just come, and accept what’s there, available at the point and time, till tourism picks up, especially for all those hotels, motels, home stay, etc. They have got it real hard, including all our homes in the villages.

For goodness sakes, allow the Cook Islands to manoeuvre itself out of those hardships as the tourists slowly come in.

Abigail Haurua

(Facebook)

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Medicinal cannabis

It was great to recently see Pete Coldwell, Chamber of Commerce general manager for the Marlborough and Kaikoura region of New Zealand come out and support the medicinal cannabis industry in that area.

The global medicinal cannabis market is projected to be worth $US52 billion in the year 2027. And experts say this new industry has the potential to become the Marlborough and Kaikoura regions biggest exporter.

Coldwell said: “It’s absolutely huge so I look at that and I look at the scale that this can get to and it can certainly compete against wine and agriculture and tourism for our regions, definitely.” Coldwell added: “After years of Covid border closures, it’s a competition we are pleased to be part of.”

Now we need to have Chamber of Commerce and Cook Islands Tourism Corporation to step up their game and get involved in the untapped goldmine of the medicinal cannabis industry of the Cook Islands.

It’s time for them to get out of their old comfort zone and start thinking differently, unconventionally and start using a new perspective, instead of lacking any diversification that will lead us from continuing to put all our eggs into the tourism basket.

It doesn’t matter what your industry is or what business you are in, support is the key.

Sincerely,

Steve Boggs