For nearly a year and a half after the onset of the pandemic, the Cook Islands didn’t see a single tourist.
In early 2020 the south Pacific country was forced to close its borders to keep Covid-19 out. In doing so it shut the doors on an industry that contributes two-thirds of the remote island country’s GDP.
Lives were upended, hotels were shut down and the government was forced to borrow tens of millions dollars to keep the economy afloat. Local people left in droves to find work in New Zealand’s South Island.
Many people took to their gardens and looked to the sea for sustenance, cushioning a government cash subsidy that aimed to keep food on people’s tables. Crabs began reclaiming beaches devoid of sunbathers.
That all changed in May when a “travel bubble” – suspended this week due to the Covid outbreak in Auckland – was established with New Zealand. Within weeks thousands of sun-starved New Zealanders had booked tickets to escape the southern hemisphere winter and indulge in a luxury that few can experience these days: a tropical vacation on a lush island that has never recorded a single Covid-19 case.
Once again, Rarotonga – the most populous island in the Cook archipelago – was buzzing. Markets were alive and bustling, restaurants were booked solid, rental cars and scooters became a hot commodity, and guided snorkel tours were quickly sold out.
While the outside world is beginning to grapple with the fourth wave and the Delta variant, in the Cook Islands the pandemic is often referred to in the past tense. Money has begun flowing into people’s pockets and into the treasury.
But not everybody is feeling the euphoria.
“During Covid I thought we were very blessed,” says Alex King, a Rarotonga-based photographer with ancestral roots in the Cook Islands.
“People within our community started to grow food again, working back in the plantations, spending more quality time with their families, and we experienced the ultimate kindness within our own people, trying to help one another out during a financially tough time for so many.”
It was a profound shift for the Cook Islands, which had recently reaped the benefits of an unprecedented multi-year economic boom culminating in a record number of arrivals in 2019.
The country’s population is 17,500 but that year it welcomed nearly 172,000 visitors – a 37% increase from half a decade earlier. Over the course of a decade GDP per capita doubled to just over NZ$30,000.
“As someone who has worked in the tourism industry for years it is not hard to understand why it has played such a dominant role in our lives,” says King.
“But over the past few years I’ve seen exactly what impact this industry is potentially driving our environment, our culture, and our community into.”
The effects of tourism running rampant are perhaps most evident in Rarotonga’s Muri lagoon – often described as the island’s crown jewel.
‘I really fear for our island’
Hotels and posh holiday homes dot this stretch of golden sand, but sewerage systems have failed to cope under the strain of increasing visitor numbers. Once pristine, Muri lagoon’s turquoise waters are frequently tarnished with overgrowths of algae.
Florence Syme-Buchanan, leader of a Muri lagoon citizen action group and journalist, says Rarotonga’s environment has been neglected for the sake of economic growth. “We do get it that tourism brings in the much-needed dollars. But at what price?” she asks.
Demand among New Zealand travellers since the opening of two-way quarantine-free travel in May exceeded expectations.
Too many visitors and too fast, says Syme-Buchanan.
“One minute we locals were marvelling how wonderful it was to have our island back, despite many of us losing income from tourist related activities, such as the weddings I did as a celebrant,” she says.
“We talk amongst ourselves about how tourism has gone right back to what it was, uncontrolled and that constant push for more and more. I really fear for our island because it is undergoing critical environmental damage from which it may never heal again.”
Calls for government to put the brakes on the industry go back to at least the early 90s, when the Cook Islands welcomed just 35,000 tourists a year.
In 2017 the opposition MP Selina Napa called on the government to cap arrival numbers while upgrades were made to Rarotonga’s roads, waste collection, and sewer systems.
Despite receiving strong pushback from government and industry circles at the time, she says her stance on the matter hasn’t changed. “We are a small island nation and the only real resource we have are our beautiful islands which the tourists are here to enjoy.”
‘A double-edged sword’
Another casualty caused by tourism’s growth may be the country’s demographics. Industry critics often point to the lack of career choices for indigenous Cook Islanders, many of whom head overseas in search of higher-paying jobs.
Born and raised in Rarotonga, Nana Short set up a small spa on the shores of Muri lagoon in 2018 while tourism was flourishing. When borders closed, she saw nearly her entire customer base evaporate.
To make up the loss in income, she took up a job delivering hydroponically grown vegetables. “I really wasn’t fussed,” she says.
“When the pandemic hit, my mind just went back to those old times, when everybody was free and there wasn’t this rush to go here or there or get things done.”
Even though tourists have returned, she says she is going to take her time in restarting her business. In the meantime she has begun studying.
Looking ahead to the future, Short says she wants to see government policies work towards offering youth opportunities outside tourism while increasing the minimum wage, which is less than half of New Zealand’s.
“During the pandemic people began to realise how important it is to use our resources, our people, and create some sort of diversification,” she says.
“A lot of these people work in the tourism sector and I know what it’s like. It’s hard work. It’s long hours.”
Reflecting on tourism’s steep climb since her childhood days on Rarotonga, Alex King says the country is lucky to have a thriving industry, but a lack of oversight by successive governments has the potential to cause critical damage to the environment.
“This industry is a double-edged sword,” she says.
