Web Site Review:

Editor: Dimitrios Buhalis

Internet Tourism Sites ReviewÐPaci®cIslandsNorman Douglas1 and Ngaire Douglas21Director, Paci®c Pro®les, Box 229, Alstonville, NSW 2477, Australia2Senior Lecturer, School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Southern Cross University, Box 157,Lismore, NSW 2478, Australia

Researchers confronting the Internet for the®rst time are likely to think they havediscovered the ultimate resource facility, aninexhaustible supply of information on anysubject, including many whose existence hadbeen barely suspected. Probably even morethan most traditional sources, however, thecontents have to be approached with consider-able caution and no small amount of patience.The egalitarian nature of the Internet Ð farmore accessible than any other form of pub-lication to anyone with anything to say on anytopic whatsoever Ð has resulted in a consider-able garbage overload.Added to this is the tendency of sites to

change in character and often in value overtime, as they are enhanced, modi®ed orextensively reconstructed. Unlike traditionalsources, such as books, journals or news-papers, there is no place where previousversions of web sites are stored, no Cyberspacearchive where the researcher may ®nd earlier,sometimes more useful, information.This brief survey of Internet sites dealing

with the Paci®c Islands is intended as apainless introduction to what can be a drawn-out process of discovery. Internet informationon almost any subject tends to fall fairlyreadily into three broad categories Ð hard,soft and slush. In the ®rst are found those sites

whose essential function is to inform ratherthan to use limited information as a kind ofbait to advertise a product. For Paci®c Islandstourism the most reliable information isprovided by the `hard' sites and one of thesestands out prominently. This is The CocoNETWireless, a Paci®c Islands News and Informa-tion site originated by Suzanna Layton, for-merly of the University of Queensland, whoshould have had a special medal struck forher services. The CocoNET can be foundat <www.uq.edu.au/jrn/coco/index/html>, andshould be bookmarked immediately by any-one whose interest in the islands extendsbeyond the nearest travel brochure. WithLayton's departure fromUQ, the site no longerprovides up to a dozen news stories per daydrawn from various sources, but it doesprovide access to many islands-based dailynews media that regularly carry tourism-related items or features, including the Hono-lulu Star-Bulletin, Papua New Guinea's Post-Courier and the newer National, and bulletinsfrom Radio Australia's Paci®c and Asia ser-vices. Also accessible through the CocoNETare a number of weeklies, journals and news-letters, any of which may contain currenttourism information, including the venerableTonga Chronicle, the Tahiti Beach Press and thePaci®c Islands Monthly.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCHInt. J. Tourism Res. 2, 361±362 (2000)

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Researchers new to the Paci®c Islands mayneed to obtain background details on theregion. This can be done via a very usefulhard information site, Michael Ogden'sPaci®c Islands Internet Resources,<www2.hawaii.edu/~ogden/piir/index.html>.Ogden was an early participant in this ®eldand his information is well organised andusually well founded, although we are lesscertain than he appears to be that the CIAWorld Fact Book is an unimpeachable source ofislands data. Nevermind, there are many othergood things here, including an interactivePaci®c map (just click on the country of yourchoice) and lists of books and other resources.Most of the better sites provide `links' wherebyrelated material can be accessed at the click ofa mouse. This, however, may also lead onedown an increasing number of blind alleys.In the soft category tourism occupies most of

the space. Many visitors' bureaux now featuretheir own sites, and the resulting quality is asvariable as any tourist facility can be. It seemsappropriate that the Hawaii Visitors andConvention Bureau, <www.visit.hawaii.org/>,representing the group that all but inventedPaci®c Islands tourism and is better endowedwith promotional funds than most others,should have one of the best sites. This offersan interactive map, details of all islands in theAloha state and a variety of other useful,relatively hype-free, well-organised informa-tion. The site also offers links to countlessHawaii-related activities and enterprises, fromthe sacred (Bishop Museum) to the profane(Hilo Hattie).Fiji, which over the decades has learned well

its lessons on tourism from Hawaii, offers a`Bula Page', at <www.bula®ji.com>. The FijiIslands, of course, are a `South Paci®c Paradise'(will they never get rid of that expression?) andalso `The Way the World Should Be', a sloganthat has made a comeback, after being Ð likedemocracyÐ in the Fijian wilderness for someyears. Once you click past the clicheÂs, thingsimprove considerably, with comprehensivedetails on essential visitor activities fromaccommodation to adventure and from cruisesto conferences. The general information pageskeep one posted on such matters as exchange

rates, weather forecasts, economic facts andtype of government. There are descriptions offorthcoming tourism and sporting events,notes on geography and history and some softsell on Fiji products. This site was underreconstruction when this survey was done,and may change. The of®cial site of theGovernment of Guam, <ns.gov.gu/>, is out-standingly well organised, and contains com-prehensive information on all aspects of thisUSA territory. Note that it does not have awww. pre®x. It offers a valuable section ontourism, <investguam.com/thd/tourism.htm/>,which features statistics on visitor arrivals,notes on tourism investment and infrastruc-ture, and other details relevant to the research-er.It would be remiss not to mention that the

Tourism Council of the South Paci®c (TCSP)has a site, which has reappeared after beinginaccessible for some time<www.tcsp.com/>. Itis a great disappointment, however, given theTCSP's resources and assumed signi®cance.The site is a good example of the value-subtracted fate referred to above, having beenreconstructed recently by Jason Publishing.Gone are such valuable inclusions as quarterlytourism statistics. The offerings now resembleJason's characteristic product, travel bro-chures. Of the 12 member countries includedin the site, the information on several is close toworthless, although students of tourism ima-gery and rhetoric may derive some wryamusement from it. There is at least one erroron every main page, of spelling, syntax or Ðeven worse Ð of fact.The amount of frankly commercial material

on the Internet (the Cyberspace equivalent ofjunk mail) is proliferating at an alarming rate,and what on ®rst glance looks promising oftenturns out to be shameless hype. This is theslush, but we should not waste time with ithere. For island enthusiasts eager to extendtheir Paci®c knowledge, the sites mentionedabove will help launch your inquiries effec-tively and will lead to many others. Even theTCSP site has some useful links. After all,sur®ng was invented in the Paci®c Islands. It isonly right that the tradition is maintained.(Sites last checked 10 June 1999)

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Tourism Res. 2, 361±362 (2000)

362 Web Site Review