Air Vanuatu grounding prompts fears Pacific country’s tourism will take big hit

Everybody is complaining, it’s not good. Don’t book Air Vanuatu.” Those were the words of a taxi driver in March as he pulled away from Vanuatu’s Bauerfield international airport and headed into the heart of Port Vila, the oceanside capital of the Pacific island country. Two months later and the frequent cancellations and delays that had become synonymous with the national carrier over the past year have given way to a government announcement that Air Vanuatu is in voluntary liquidation. In a country where 48% of gross domestic product is derived from tourism, business owners fear tourism will bear the brunt of the airline’s grounding. “The livelihoods of thousands of ni-Vanuatu and their dependents employed in Vanuatu hotels and resorts are now at risk,” the Vanuatu Hotels and Resorts Association (VHRA) said in a statement. “Massive damage has been done to Vanuatu’s reputation in overseas tourism markets. Potential tourists are going elsewhere, and wholesalers are selling to other, less troubled destinations.” Before the pandemic, the 83-island country welcomed about 90,000 tourists each year, drawn in by volcanic landscapes, brochure-worthy beaches and rich marine life. The majority came from Australia and New Zealand, and while Virgin Australia also flies to and from the archipelago, Air Vanuatu carried the majority of the country’s air travellers. Joel Slattery, owner of hotel the Moso, located on an island of the same name, said Vanuatu was in the midst of a post-pandemic tourism boom but Air Vanuatu’s ongoing turbulent operations had led to people “crossing it off their list as a destination”. Speaking from the veranda of the resort’s main house with a view out to the ocean, Slattery said that over the past few months several guests had been forced to abandon their remote-island experience.<br/>