Kia Orana Plus – rapid training for the Cook Islands Tourism industry

By
Cook Islands Tourism Corporation
Photography By
Te Rua Manga

Kia Orana Plus is a rapid training programme that has been developed by Cook Islands Tourism, to prepare the tourism sector for the re-opening of our tourism industry.

 

“This training will help the people of the Cook Islands remain vigilant, and help maintain our COVID free status” said CEO of Cook Islands Tourism Halatoa Fua. Fua added “Kia Orana Plus will help the tourism industry to effect the new Cook Islands Promise, which is a joint commitment between our international visitors and us the host community, to keep everyone safe from COVID-19”.

Cook Islands Tourism along with partners Office of the Prime Minister, and Te Marae Ora are developing a set of training modules that will form the basis of the Kia Orana Plus programme. These training modules will be released in the form of short online videos, to encourage remote training and allow the industry to train staff on site.

“The simple training videos will act as a guideline for all of us in the tourism industry, as part of our commitment to the Cook Islands Promise” reiterated Fua.

Kia Orana Plus will start with information about the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus widely known as COVID-19 as it is important for all staff in the sector to fully understand the virus, symptoms, methods of transmission etc.

Next, Kia Orana Plus will teach the Cook Islands Promise, outlining the commitments from both us the host community, and from our visitorstoo, to ensure that we all safeguard the health of our island homes. This training will reinforce for the tourism industry the importance of practiceslike pragmatic physical distancing, maintaining good hygiene, and continued disinfection, while not forgetting your Kia Orana Customer Service.

The Kia Orana Plus programme will be available first off as a ‘train the trainer’ to a select number of tourism operators and trainers before it is rolled out to the wider community.

For more information, please contact Claire Wilson at Cook Islands Tourism [email protected]