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The first international tourists in more than a year will arrive on Rarotonga on Tuesday.
The first flight in the long-awaited New Zealand-Cook Islands travel bubble will depart Auckland on Tuesday morning as Rarotonga prepares to welcome its first international tourists in 15 months. The sold-out Air New Zealand flight NZ940 will have 214 passengers on board, and will leave at 8.55am. It lands in Rarotonga at 2.30pm May 17, Cook Islands Time. It’s the first Pacific travel bubble for New Zealand, and the first travel bubble for the Cook Islands after more than a year of border closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.
We re just starting to see the negative impacts adding up in a big way. We re looking forward to seeing our Kiwi friends back on the island and being able to go backwards and forth ourselves. It s great news for everybody.
The Cook Islands must ready airports and other infrastructure for the influx of visitors but Melvin said two weeks should be enough time. Although we ve been dying to get this open, it s really having a date that we could shoot for. Every time we ve seen that there s a possible date coming up, people have gone out and ordered supplies and got themselves ready.
Solomon Islands Confident in Political Dialogue to Restore Pacific Unity
He says it is regrettable that the five Micronesian countries have decided to withdraw from the forum and says that it was quite a challenge for the leaders in last year’s voting process for the new Secretary General.
Source: File Friday, 23 April 2021 10:43 AM
Foreign Affairs Minister Jeremiah Manele says Solomon Islands is confident that Pacific relationship with Micronesia will soon be resolved.
Manele told parliament the Pacific Islands Forum Chair, Tuvalu’s Prime Minister, has been in close consultation with Forum leaders and Solomon Islands is optimistic of a good outcome for the Pacific.