Criticism for a better future - Pacific Agribusiness week 2015

Making mistakes is one thing, but making mistakes and learning from them is the stepping stone to success. Different representatives from various organisations took the floor at the agribusiness forum in Nadi to share their experiences and the lessons learnt. There were two particular speakers who really got to me. While one’s words pierced my heart as it was the harsh reality, the other stole the words from my mouth. Cate Pleass the marketing director of Pleass Global Limited, shared with the participants some strategies to ensure a sustainable agritourism. “It’s very important that you develop and add new elements so people can find a reason to return”. I couldn’t agree more to this statement, imagine this: you go to a country, you go skiing, hiking etc. After 3-4 years you reconsider that country, but there is nothing different than before.

Though I really don’t see how they are adding new elements at to their own company “Kila world”, an adventure park on the island of Viti Levu in Fiji. From the looks of it, they are not practicing what they are preaching. I don’t see any new activities they are adding, at least not from the time they opened. This next particular speaker had me thinking and comparing to what he was saying to my own country. Oliveira Gómez, from the Dominican Republic, is the Deputy Executive Director of the Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA). While talking about the Caribbean, he mentioned that accessibility, appeal, authenticity, availability, consistency, convenience, quality, security, value, and volume are the key to success in terms of tourism. Being from the Pacific, it felt pretty derogatory for me, but then this is a wake-up call. After all, I had mentioned before how much we have to learn from the Caribbean.

See more via CTA's blog; http://blogs.cta.int/2015/07/02/criticism-better-future/