You might remember that the Tanoa Tusitala Hotel almost completed a major renovation work on the famous Apia Hotel in September last year when an electrical fault caused a major fire, burning most of the hotel down.

An extreme determination of the Fijian based Tanoa Hotel Group and owners, the Reddy family, made them once again rebuild the hotel.

Now Open!

On July 01, The Tanoa Tusitala Hotel officially opened to the public. Although the hotel is not totally completed it still has the most necessary things in place.

The Tusitala hotel has always been an important venue for meetings and conferences much because of the great space and the resort ambience available. The new Tanoa Tusitala Hotel keeps the traditional style that it has been known for during all the years it has been operating as “Hotel Kitano Tusitala” before it was sold to the Tanoa Group.

Keep getting the news from Samoa in our Free Newsletter

http://www.samoa-experience.net

Mats Loefkvist

P.S

People ask me about how to migrate, live, or work in New Zealand.

Samoa is not a big place with lots of different accommodation types. We are still in the beginning of developing a quality tourist destination.

Some of the bigger hotel has got a well organized infra structure with their own black and grey water cleaning systems. Samoa in general still has a long way to go to get all areas of service working properly.

Some tourists are telling us that they enjoy the old way of doing things, which is fine. The reality is that not every old practice is environmentally friendly. As the progress is slow we will not change too quick anyway.

We get requests from people that are interested in home exchange, which I think is a great idea. I use your home and you use mine…

This is a simple idea and it works really well. You save all hotel expenses and just need to save up for the travel and food and drinks. Many families also let people use their cars and bicycles.

So far this is a new idea in Samoa and very few people have used the system. We hope that we have an opportunity to change this which could be a great experience for both Samoans and people from outside.

I am not sure though, that everyone would exchange their nice house for a small Samoan Fale?

You can go to almost every country in the world and use this system. have a look at how it works and save yourself all the hotel costs on your next trip.

Keep getting the news from Samoa in our Free Newsletter

http://www.samoa-experience.net

Mats Loefkvist

Hotels Samoa

Salani Surf Resort was a beautifully designed small resort in Samoan style. Totally integrated in the Salani village the resort was operated by surfers for surfers. Exactly where the river meets the sea become the perfect location for accessing the great waves just a short boat ride away.

The nature of a surfer is to be up early in the morning to watch the waves and plan for the perfect time to get out to sea. This habit probably saved all the guests and staff at Salani in the morning on September 29, 2009. The knowledge of earth quakes creating tsunamis plus that the water disappeared from the lagoon was signs enough for the manager Nick to quickly evacuate all people from the resort up to higher grounds.

In just minutes 12 years of work was washed away by the huge tsunami wave that followed. The place was completely clean except for one house that for some reason was spared.

Not sure about the future.

There are hopes to have Salani surf resort up and running again after a year or more but this is still only hopes. It is all depending on insurance payments and the willingness to continue by the owners.

Salani Surf resort was always very concerned about safety and good practices for their surfing guests which was very valuable for the reputation of Samoa as a good surfing destination. It would be very welcomed to have Salani Surf Resort continuing their work in this area which certainly would make a difference in promoting Samoa worldwide as a safe and caring destination.

Listen to Nick when he explains what happened on September 29, 2009

Mats Loefkvist   www.samoa-experience.com

The Taufua family was the family in Samoa who lost  most members during the tsunami catastrophe. Despite of the loss they are determined to build up the very popular “Taufua Beach Fales again. The family has such a strong vision of what they want to create that nothing can stop then from making their dreams come true.

After all the emotional wounds and long hospitalization, the owners Sili and Tai tells us about their plans to have Taufua Beach Fales up and running the same way as before and their former guests should arrive to the new Taufua Beach Fales with the feeling of coming home as nothing has happened.

We want you to come home!

Sili and Tai wants you to come home and enjoy their heart-felt hospitality the way it always have been. After the tsunami disaster they have had lots of time to reflect and plan their future life which also gave them many new ideas about how to construct their new Beach Fales and what their customers actually would like to have and experience.

The new fales will have no metal parts on the roofing that could be a danger to people, plus that the whole layout of the resort will be better planned for a quick exit in any difficult weather condition.

Going up the hill.

Up on the steep hills above the Lalomanu coast line, the Taufua family have already compleated a brand new big building that will serve as their private residence and accommodation for future guests. There will be a great new restaurant caring for the guests who are enjoying their time in one of the four luxurious bungalows that overlooks the ocean. The ocean view is absolutely spectacular and you will be able to see as far as American Samoa during clear days. From this new resort area with swimming pool up the hill you only have a short 15 minutes walk down to the well-known Lalomanu Beach and the famous traditional Taufua Beach Fales.

Let us explain……

Thank You James!

We like to say a big thank you to James Buffin for coming the whole way from Canada on his own expenses to help us with the professional video clip above plus many more to come in the following weeks….

Mats Loefkvist    www.samoa-experience.com

Recently a good friend from Canada, James Buffin felt the urge to come and make a contribution to Samoa with his documentary film making skills. He put in two weeks of his time plus all the expenses for airfares,  transportation of camera equipment and accommodation  to make a difference  in helping the Samoan people to monitor the progress of rebuilding after the tsunami.

Tsunami Affected Family

Mr. Buffin is now back in Canada editing his material which  soon will appear on this blog as video clips interviewing struggling business owners trying to rebuilding their hotels and beach fales.

After talking to 9 different affected hotel/resort businesses along the south coast we experienced very much the same concern and frustration by all of them.

Not enough government help.

Their main concern is that they have got no or very little help from the government to rebuild their lives and business. Almost all help they got came from private people who felt the necessity to make a contribution in rebuilding the beautiful beach areas with the so typical and popular Samoan beach fale.

With the private help, Fao Fao Beach Fales in Saleapaga has already built 4 fales on the beach and has a main building with restaurant soon compleated. They hope to be open for Christmas. Also with private funding, Taufua Beach Fales and Litia’s Beach Fales at Lalomanu have started to rearrange the damage beach area and will very soon have it back to what it looked before the disaster.

Sili and Tai, the owner of  Taufua Beach Fales explained that they like their guests to return to a place that looks the same as before, like coming home…

Normal families, not having a previous business at the beach are not likely to return so fast. Up in the hills at their new location they are also waiting for their promised government help with house rebuilding, water and power. Although most people already have power installed in their temporary shelters, the water is still not there.

We need your skills!

To make things move faster, Habitat for Humanity New Zealand plans to ramp-up its involvement in Samoa in the New Year, as it helps the rebuilding effort. The organisation wants to recruit increased numbers of skilled New Zealand volunteers, to follow in the footsteps of the several dozen, who have already contributed to Samoa’s reconstruction.

Habitat NZ currently has two teams of 12 volunteers working in Samoa. One of the teams is located in the village of Lepa, which is home to the organisation’s Resource Centre, where prefabricated trusses, toilet and shower walls and other building parts are being made. The other team is stationed in the village of Lolomanu. The volunteers are being hosted by local communities and accommodated in church halls.

“If you have the skills they need and would like to spend two weeks in Samoa during 2010, working for a very good cause, then please visit the website at www.habitat.org.nz or call them on 0800 44 22 48, to find out more about what’s entailed,”

Mats Loefkvist     http://www.samoa-experience.com

We recently picked up 2 huge bags with cloths that came the whole way from Sweden. The swedish travel and tour agent “Tour Pacific” sent the bags with two of their clients. We were sure that they were happy to carry the big and heavy bags half around the world. The people in Samoa were at least very happy to receive the cloths. Among the cloths there were about 30 Swedish T-shirts in bright yellow and blue. We walked around town yesterday and we saw 2 kids with a swedish T-shirt.

Money from Australia and Europe,

More people have been donating money for Samoa. We got all together 3,200 Tala paid into our account from staff at “Intrepid Travel” in Australia plus from private people in Europe.

We decided to get the shopping done and filled the car with rice and canned fish (sorry, this is what the Samoans like most) and had it delivered to 16 different families.

As we are moving around in the affected areas, we realize that the progress of rebuilding is slow and we would like to see more organized efforts from the government to have villages cleaned up, businesses up and running and families getting one of the new buildings that was promised.

We will continue to add more reports about the progress inn a near future.

Mats    www.samoa-experience.com

After a few years in the business we know that it takes a bit more than that to get established. Although Tourism is the number one revenue earner in Samoa there is still very little knowledge about what is required to make a hotel profitable and working. The ones who have been around for some time knows that you have to hang in there with both hands and feet to survive. We do what we can, usually with very little money, to raise the quality and improve the experience for our visitors. Unfortunately we sometimes get tourists to Samoa that think that accommodation and food should be almost for free although we pay more for our food shopping than you would do in New Zealand and Australia.

One very good thing is that we are willing to learn what we can do better and improve, so please let us know and give us your comments.

By the way, Have you booked your hotel yet? If not, just go to:  http://www.samoa-experience.com

Don’t leave home without it!