The Cook Islands is preparing to open its tourism industry for business. Vigilance is paramount as Government and the tourism industry prepare to be as practical as possible. 

“The Cook Islands Promise is a joint commitment between hosts and guests to safeguard the health of our island communities and our visitors” says Deputy Prime Minister Mark Brown in his opening statement of the media conference. Developed by Cook Islands Tourism in collaboration with the Office of the Prime Minister and Te Marae Ora, the official launch of The Cook Islands Promise was held at a joint media conference today. “The Promise is a joint commitment to protect all Cook Islands residents, and international visitors from COVID-19, and basically outlines our commitment to keeping the Cook Islands COVID free” said Cook Islands Tourism CEO Halatoa Fua. 

Fua explained further “the Cook Islands Promise and commitment works across three zones with practices and guidelines for each zone. Firstly, the General Zone, which applies to all areas of the industry and focuses on pragmatic physical distancing and good hygiene measures. The Explore Zone, which includes all public facilities and venues, transport of all kinds, and focuses on avoiding crowding, avoiding direct contact with others, and avoiding unnecessary touching of surfaces. And finally the Stay Zone, which applies to all accommodation properties, and focuses on safeguarding the guests and staff by encouraging practical distancing measures”. “The Cook Islands Promise encourages both us the hosts, and our visitors, to safeguard each other by applying common sense physical distancing and stepped up hygiene practices. This is the new normal” he added. 

To launch the Cook Islands Promise, today, Dr Aumea Herman Secretary of Health says “Together with the Tourism Corporation we have developed some basic measures that when applied will help to safeguard our community from COVID 19 once the borders are reopened and visitors travel to the Cook Islands. This approach ensures our whole community is taking responsibility to keep ourselves safe, not just residents but visitors too, who are a part of our community”.

“The Cook Islands Tourism team in New Zealand will ensure that each visitor receives the Cook Islands Promise before they arrive so that our advice to see their GP in New Zealand before travel, will be given to our visitors in advance of departure” Dr Herman added. 

“The Cook Islands Promise combined with the Kia Orana Plus rapid training programme being developed by Cook Islands Tourism, and the CookSafe contact tracing system developed by the Private Sector Taskforce, helps to ensure that the Cook Islands Tourism Industry can be confident when visitors are ready to travel to the Cook Islands again” said Halatoa Fua CEO Cook Islands Tourism.

For more information please visit the COVID-19 website and to sign up for the Kia Orana Community weekly emails, please contact Carlene Mapu: [email protected]