Samoa joins World Rural Tourism Conference

Samoa has joined the World Rural Tourism Conference (WRTC) initiative which aims to help members better promote high-quality and sustainable rural tourism development.

The WRTC is a conference-based platform which has been successfully held in 2015, 2017 and 2018. 

WRTC plans to establish dedicated regional exchanges in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia-Pacific and China to jointly promote communication on rural tourism business, market promotion, branding, education, training and industry development. 

As part of its rural tourism development push, WRTC has formed the ‘Rural Light’ project which will promote the establishment and recognition of model cities, towns and regions among its members.

The final results of the project will be announced at the 4th World Rural Tourism Conference which will be jointly organised with the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).

In joining the WRTC project, STA CEO Faamatuainu Lenatai Suifua said ‘sustainable tourism development is vital for the future success of Samoa as a small island developing state’. He added that ‘this is a timely initiative to highlight what Samoa has to offer and also identify through exchanges, additional opportunities and learnings that can support our own development goals’.