Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The Territory of American Samoa will be advertised and promoted in the three biggest cities of Australia, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney when the American Samoa Visitors Bureau (ASVB) takes advantage of an invitation from the Samoa Tourism Authority’s (STA) “Tri Cities Road Show”, set to hit Australia next week.

The delegation to Australia includes ASVB Director, Taimalelagi Minnie Tuia, Samoa’s Minister of STA Toesulusulu Cedric Schuster, STA CEO Pativaine Petaia Tevita and ASVB Ms Sandra Fuimaono Lutu.

The 2Samoa’s will be promoted together in the three cities — Brisbane, the capital and most populous city of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania; Melbourne, the capital of the Australian state of Victoria, and the largest city in Australia by population; and, Sydney, capital of the state of New South Wales.

The STA has invited ASVB to join them.

During the Samoa talk, they talked about collaborating and partnering in doing marketing  for the 2-Samoas.

Taimalelagi when asked by Samoa news if they’re accepting the invitation said, yes, “they’ve humbly accepted it, and are grateful of the opportunity to share what American Samoa has to offer.”

American Samoa’s delegation will leave today, July 28, 2023 for the tri-city road show.

It’s understood, Samoa is the major market, and ASVB hopes to get some of those tourists to hop on over to American Samoa.

“We cannot compete with Samoa, their development infrastructure is different from ours.

“They have major airlines every day, Quanta’s, Fiji Air, Air New Zealand, Samoa Airways , and China Air is coming,” Taimalelagi said, adding, they are not trying to compete with Samoa — “Our major market is the USA.”

However, she pointed out, “Samoa should promote American Samoa as well — ‘don’t stop there, go over to American Samoa’.

“We have the same people, same culture, [but] there is a different flavor to each group of islands, with their political influences.

“We are going to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, and thank you to the STA for the initiative, to its CEO, Pativaine Petaia Tevita and Minister of STA and MNRE, Toesulusulu Cedric Shuster.

“They have taken to heart the encouragement and spirit of the 2-Samoas by initiating the inclusion of American Samoa into their marketing,” Taimalelagi said.

The local delegates will be focusing on promoting and marketing American Samoa’s industry service providers, which include the hotels, accommodations, tour operators, etc.

“What’s in American Samoa for the tourists to do and to see?” asked Samoa News.

The ASVB Director replied, “We have a lot of treasures — we have the US National Park South of the Equator, we have a lot of hiking trails, and we have different historical and legendary sites that tell stories to keep our culture alive.

“We may not have five-star hotels and sandy beaches like in Samoa, Hawaii and Fiji, but we have one of the best natural harbors in the region.

(Samoa News should point out that there is a beach in the Manu’a Islands that has made the ‘best remote sandy beach in the world list’.)

“Our political stability being a Territory of the United States of America is also attractive.

 The continent of Australia holds a population of more than 26.4 million people, pointing to all the reasons the 2-Samoas are teaming up to promote the Samoan island experience — from two points of view: English- Samoan and American- Samoan. And perhaps a third one, the most important reason to visit — the fa’aSamoa one.