New policies announced this week by the Norfolk Island Government have the potential to take Norfolk Island to another level in tourism.
Strong protectionist policies supported by island legislation have up till now contributed to an ageing of the island's accommodation stock and done little to encourage innovation in tourism product with no real way of overcoming the problem.
Restrictions on "foreign" ownership have effectively prevented any major tourism players from investing on Norfolk Island and have meant that little has been done to bring properties up to national or international standards.
Those restrictions are to be removed. New strategies aimed at capturing higher yield tourists are being developed and these should assist Norfolk Island to once again become a highly favoured tourist destination.
In common with many tourism destinations in the Australia and the Pacific, Norfolk Island has been under extreme pressure, with falling tourist numbers, increasing costs and a crippling air services contract all combining to take Norfolk Island to brink of insolvency.
The Australian Government has provided substantial funds to assist Norfolk Island, including the funds necessary to extricate the island's Government from the unfavourable air services contract with Our Airline (Nauru), and to sign up and underwrite Air New Zealand to the route.
In providing the funds the Australian Government has insisted that the Norfolk Island Government commit to a wide rangeing suite of reforms aimed at stimulating the island's economy. Reforms include dispensing with competition and immigration barriers to encourage investment and to increase and diversify the skills of the island's population.
In a very real sense the perception is that the brakes are coming off Norfolk Island's economy and while tourism will remain the principal industry for the forseeable future, locals are hoping that a broader economy can develop on the back of the growth that the new policies will drive.
From the day the new policies were announced enquiries have been coming in. It's clear that there are investors out there looking for opportunities and Norfolk Island may be just the ticket. For full details go to;
info.gov.nf
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