Kerryn - Cook Islands Tourism & Alana - Turama Pacific Travel Group

The Cook Islands have increased their focus on MICE in Australia, in a bid to build its events profile down under.

Speaking to e-Travel Blackboard at the region’s special MICE event last night, Cook Islands Tourism Australian general manager Kerryn Cook told e-Travel Blackboard the Islands are well equipped to cater to all types of events and the plan was to reveal that to Aussie event planners.

She explained the renewed focus came with the exchange from having a part time rep in Australia to a full-time office, as it allowed her team to realise specific markets they wanted to target down under.

“We’ve marketed in Australia before but since we’ve established a full-time office we really want to get the message out that we are serious, we have the experience, the suppliers and what it takes to host events,” Mr Cook said.

“We’re also now proactively moving to reach our target markets because we figured out what our objectives were.”

The Cooks’ head added that currently the region is hosting a number of MICE events and last night’s showcase was to build awareness that the Islands’ hosting style is flexible and tailor made not “cookie cutter”.

“We are already selling MICE, we just have to build awareness,” she said.

Earlier this year the tourism board unveiled new marketing strategies to build its leisure business.

Ms Cook told e-Travel Blackboard since launching new social media and outdoor campaigns, the Islands’ website doubled its number of clicks.