The island’s flagship property and the island’s largest tourist asset, the Scenic Matavai Resort is getting ready for when the borders reopen by mobilising its top people to facilitate the transition back to full operation.
Scenic’s Regional manager Brett Inkster is here to ensure the resort is ready by taking stock of what is needed to get the property up to the standards required and this includes certain protocols for the tourism industry having to adapt to the impacts of COVID-19.
“My role here is to facilitate with some of the key stakeholders but also working through a succession plan to open the property when the border does open and all the protocols involved”.
He told BCN news that the task ahead involves a number of various programmes including training of staff as well as bringing in technical assistance from abroad to fix and maintain the infrastructure.
“First of all, have a look at how the staff are, morale and also resourcing our strategy for the property to reposition it for when the border does actually open. We haven’t had tourists for a long time so there’s a lot of re-training to do as well.
“A property of this size, it’s actually very costly keeping a property of this size empty”.
The resort is also expecting the new manager at the end of the month and one of her priority tasks is to prepare the staff through training staff in what is expected of the tourism industry in these covid 19 times when tourists will also expect a certain level of safety especially when it comes to cleaning.
“We’re running a whole different set of protocols with staff training such as cleaning of rooms, the procedures to follow when dealing with guests within the hotel. So, all the cleaning equipment and all the products we’ll be using and the training manuals are all being shipped up now”.
Even with the suspension of the tourism industry over the past eighteen months, they are still marketing Niue and the Resort in New Zealand. Inkster says that they just want to make sure that their branding and the messaging on Niue is still out there for the free and independent traveller leisure market as well as the niche markets like weddings, conference and meeting incentives.
Their Business development manager based in Auckland has been attending trade events and promoting Niue, recently at a wedding expo in Auckland in early May.
“We’ve had a lot of interest in Niue, purely because the other destinations are seen as a bit of a risk for a Pacific island wedding. The Scenic already have confirmed bookings for weddings in 2022 and with more enquiries coming in”.
Brett Inkster says that in addition to promoting for new business there are also more than 750 stay credits or paid booking credits by tourists who were not able to visit since the borders closed will be honoured.
There is already a wedding booking for next year and a few more enquiries for the meetings, incentives and conference facilities.
“So there’s some very good possibilities for Niue also with the meetings and conference market.”