Tourist Potential Of Cook Islands

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32119, 15 October 1969, Page 16

Tourist Potential Of Cook Islands

A man who last year prepared 66 recommendations for the development of tourism in the Cook Islands with no idea at the time that he would be the man selected to do the task arrived in Christchurch yesterday.

He is Mr A. S. Helm, the general manager of the Cook Islands Tourist Authority, who explained that the task had to be completed in readiness for the tourist boom expected in the area when the international airport at Rarotonga is completed in 1971. Planned for completion before then are two large hotels, one of which will be at Avarua, Rarotonga, and the other on the island of Aitutaki, 140 miles north-east of Rarotonga. Both hotels would be built primarily with private capital, said Mr Helm. Each would provide 140 beds and as tourism developed provision would be made for further expansion. Although everything possible would be done to develop tourism in the Cook Islands, every effort would be

made to keep Rarotonga as unspoiled and as natural as possible, he said. About 100 to 200 tourists

a year visited the area, but after 1971 he expected 10,006 a year, said Mr Helm. Australia and New Zealand would be the principal customers sought. For the New Zealand man in the street there would be no passport or visa, and New Zealand currency would be used. From the tourist point of view the Cook Islands remained virtually untouched. Rarotonga had a population of 10.000 and the whole 15 islands in the Cook group had only 19,000. Since the Rarotonga airport project was approved groups of interested visitors from New Zealand had been visiting the region, said Mr Helm.