Samoa Tourism Resilience Asset Protection Facility

Samoa Tourism Authority hosted the Validation Workshop for the Samoa Tourism Resilience Asset Protection (STRAP) Facility on 3rd May at Millenia Hotel in Apia. The workshop was attended by tourism industry members (SHHA and ATA), representatives from the finance sector, in particular the commercial banks and non-bank financial institutions and key Government Agencies – the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Samoa. 

The aim of the Workshop was to present the Final Report on the Establishment of the STRAP Facility and its Operational Guidelines before being submitted to Government for endorsement.

The Samoa tourism industry has been heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic which resulted in the closure of Samoa’s borders and the declaration of the State of Emergency in March 2020. 

The STRAP Facility is intended to provide support for the tourism and hospitality sector as part of a core revitalisation package by Government. The STRAP Facility is proposed to comprise of 3 components: 1) Inclusive Tourism Grants, 2) Resilient Green Investments and Concessions and 3) Facility Management and Capacity Building. It will be overseen by the Samoa Tourism Steering Committee and administered by the STRAP Facility Project Management Unit of the Samoa Tourism Authority pending approval by Cabinet.

The Feasibility and Costing Study for the STRAP Facility was made possible with the generous support of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) under the auspices of the Joint SDG Fund project 'Developing Integrated National Financing Frameworks for Cook Islands, Niue and Samoa’. 

KVAConsult, a Pacific based consultancy firm, was commissioned by UNESCAP to prepare the Feasibility and Costing Study in close collaboration with the Samoa Tourism Authority.