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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Top 10 travelers' choice islands in the world

For this year, the Tripadvisor has come out with its top ten best islands in the world according to travelers. Bora Bora in French Polynesia is in the top three, followed by Aitutaki (in the Cook Islands) in number 7, are the only Pacific Islands on the top-ten list.  

Among Pacific Islands, the following is the top-ten ranking:


1. Bora Bora, French Polynesia 
2. Aitutaki, Cook Islands
3. Moorea, French Polynesia 
4. Efate, Vanuatu
5. Rarotonga, Cook Islands
6. Waiheke Island, New Zealand
7. Norfolk Island, Australia
8. Taveuni Island, Fiji
9. Kangaroo Island, Australia
10. Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu

Having shown the above, it must be pointed out that FSMPIO has not ascertained if travellers to the Micronesian islands participated in the travelers' survey this year. However, one can not help noticing the obvious fact that none of the "travelers' destinations" in this part of the Pacific found its way onto the top-ten Pacific list, let alone the World listing.

I am once again reminded by this that Micronesia is the most expensive destination in the world. This fact alone might be a monstrous impediment for any of these islands to have a "fighting chance" in listing such as this. So many, including the airline folks, assert that there simply is no "market value" to drive travel cost down.  In other words, the essence and attraction in flying is non-existent here. Talk to the tourism operators and you get a different take.

Is it impossible to see the  reverse of the situation anytime soon? But then, again, "impossible is nothing" according to Adidas. How do we find the answer?




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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 27, 2014 at 9:41 AM

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/15/2014-travel-bucket-list_n_4428222.html

    Kosrae makes the top 14 destinations for 2014 travel bucket list.

    But yes, access to Micronesia is expensive and flight schedules also seem to have been victim to many cancellations and delays over the past 18 months.

    Some islands have subsidized flights to encourage the tourism and exports markets.

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    Replies
    1. AnonymousFebruary 28, 2014 at 9:37 AM

      I totally agree with Anonymous

      Not only does Kosrae made it in the Travel Bucket List, it made it in the Huffington Post too came in at # 2 in that special list of, "If you could spend $5,000 to visit any destination in the world in 2014, where would you go?" contest,
      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/11/dream-trip_n_4761731.html?utm_hp_ref=travel

      The Top Ten listing from TripAdvisor is only good with the "eye of the beholder" in this case TripAdvisor's surveyed.,which included mass tourism travelers Even Guam/Hawaii didn't make it, and that doesn't mean that they're struggling in tourism. Look at it this way, if Palau can make it, why not FSM?. We can choose our own destiny if we work together. If our leaders are willing to think outside the box. What we truly ought to do is negotiate on various ways to improve air routes or to bring in more direct charters and hoping that does would become regular flights soon after. We need to work on the bottlenecks in Chuuk and Majuro because of as now, many tourists from US or Asia or Europe would like to come to Kosrae and Pohnpei but when they book for flights, it would show "no seats. Tourism is the key to our success.......some other resources may run out, but we'll still have tourism. Again with the case of Palau, they did it in less than 10 years back in the early 90's....How long do we have till the Compact expires?

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