June 2007

The Travel Bug - Issue 28

New Staff Uniform and Logo for Evergreen Tours in Vanuatu

2007 marks a year of change for Evergreen Tours from Vanuatu who have come out with a new logo and a new office staff uniform. Grooming and presentation is top priority and Evergreen would like to keep up to the trend of looking smart and presentable to their guests while maintaining the ‘island touch’. Evergreen also recently purchased a new 5 seater bus to add to their fleet. Evergreen is 100 percent locally owned and run by indigenous staff. Proudly established for almost 8 years, running exclusive tours to the famous Mele Cascades Waterfall, one of Port Vilas popular attractions and also Islandreams Glass Bottom Kayaking Tour and EDGE Abseiling. Evergreen tours is now in the process of putting together our new tour booklet which features our exclusive tours and Efate’s popular tours. Visit Evergreen on www.evergreen.com.vu (Source: Evergreen Tours)

Air China Comes to Port Vila Bauerfield Airport

In a first for Vanuatu, an Air China Boeing 767 aircraft touched down at Port Vila’s Bauerfield Airport on the 28th March. Carrying the Vice Premier of the Chinese State Council, Mr Zeng Peiyan, on a goodwill visit, the aircraft is the largest type yet to service the country. Access to the country is largely provided in narrow body Boeing 737 jets out of ports in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Noumea and the nearby Solomon Islands. According to Airports Vanuatu Limited CEO, Hendry Joewangeh, the airport design can accommodate widebody aircraft, but this is the first time that there has actually been widebody operations from Port Vila. He says there has been a general misconception with the tourism industry that high terrain around Bauerfield Airport precludes larger, longer haul aircraft from landing and taking off at the country’s premier airport. The Air China flight is a graphic demonstration of the capability of Bauerfield International Airport to accommodate wide body aircraft. The fact that it is an Asian airline is also significant he says. Airports Vanuatu Limited is continuing active dialogue with a number of operators regarding the possibility of widebody services operating from Asia to Port Vila, to provide more direct access to the growing number of visitors from Asia and Europe travelling via major Asian gateways. (Source: Airports Vanuatu Limited)

Pacific Islands Air Service Agreement

The regional agreement amongst the island countries of the Pacific to open up their skies to each other’s airlines is just one step short of coming into force. The Tongan Minister for Transportation Hon. Paul Karalus says Vanuatu has become the fifth signatory but six nations have to ratify the Pacific Islands Air Services Agreement (PIASA) to make it a reality. Paul Karalus says the five countries that have ratified the agreement are Cook Islands, Nauru, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu. This agreement according to Karalus is a regional agreement that will provide for a multi-lateral basis for liberalising air services between the Forum Island Countries. He says PIASA's main objective is to establish a framework for the gradual integration of aviation services of the Forum members in a way that is fully supportive of sustainable development of the Forum island countries. (Source: Tonga Now News 22/05/2007)