A new partnership between the Cook Islands Investment Corporation (CIIC) and Cook Islands Tourism is set to enhance our national public spaces for the benefit of locals and tourists alike.
Having signed a formal Memorandum Of Understanding last week, the two organisations are looking forward to an ongoing collaboration on the development and management of public spaces, facilities, and event infrastructure around the country.
Joint projects in the works will see staff from both CIIC and Cook Islands Tourism cooperating on ways to improve a variety of public spaces such as beaches, parks, reserves, walkways and hiking trails, as well as government buildings and grounds.
“Tourism research has shown that public facilities are a recurring area that needs improvement,” said Ms Sieni Tiraa, Destination Development Coordinator at Cook Islands Tourism.
“This partnership will help to address these areas of concern for both agencies and contribute to enhancing the experience of locals and visitors alike,” she added.
CIIC CEO Allan Jensen agrees. “I’m very pleased to see our two agencies looking at better ways of working collaboratively as partners,” he said.
“Having these kinds of agreements in place to help guide agencies on working together to achieve shared goals and objectives really helps get things going.”
Describing their new MOU with CIIC as “a move towards a more unified approach on supporting sustainable tourism”, CEO Halatoa Fua explained that this is the second such agreement Cook Islands Tourism has signed with a key government ministry or agency.
And over the coming months Cook Islands Tourism will be formalising further agreements like this with other government agencies, all with the aim of supporting sustainable tourism in several different priority areas like infrastructure, managing the environmental impact of tourism development, and, with respect to the COVID pandemic, health, and safety.
