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From
the Press Room - June 2003 |
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Rongelap set for Summer Launch |
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By Giff Johnson, Marshall Islands Journal |
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| Rongelap is
gearing up to begin tour operations in July, but the resort
managers know that just opening Rongelap
for visitors won't mean thousands -- or even hundreds -- of
visitors this year. |
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"We're selling Rongelap as a new
destination in Micronesia," they told the Journal. "It's a
new and untouched destination. The core of our advertising is
that no one has been there for 20 years." |
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Their strategy for promoting
"Rongelap Expeditions" is the adventure of going to a
destination that virtually no other tourists have visited. |
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Rongelap Expeditions is going to
offer a mix of activities, instead of focusing solely on
diving or sports fishing. Diving, fishing, luxury kayaking and
ecology tours will all play a part in the offering at
Rongelap. |
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Using the live-aboard dive
vessel Oleanda as a base of operations, Rongelap Expeditions
will be using its four smaller boats to take visitors out for
diving and fishing trips each day. Neighboring Ailingnae Atoll, which is a short two-hour boat ride from
Rongelap, will be a regular feature of tourist visits to
Rongelap, he said. They plan to use Rongerik, too, but because
of its distance will use it as a special destination for
selected tours. |
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Kwajalein residents will get a
taste of what the Oleanda has to offer in late June. The
vessel is expected to stop in Kwajalein on its way to northern
Rongelap at the end of June to offer dinner cruises for local
residents. Wayne said that Kwajalein divers have shown strong
interest in visiting Rongelap in the future. |
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Rongelap's first visitors are
scheduled to arrive in late July. The opening will be somewhat
low-key as Rongelap Expeditions works to get the word out
about this new destination. |
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Its first big promotion push
will be at the annual show of the Diving Equipment and
Marketing Association (DEMA)
that will be held in Miami in October. "That will be the
launching show for Rongelap." "We'll use that to
put Rongelap on the map." The annual DEMA show helped to
launch Bikini's now popular dive operation, and is visited
annually by tens of thousands of scuba dive wholesalers and
individual divers. |
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One of the reasons for
diversifying, he said, is to target families. A family
interested to travel to an exotic destination may have only
one person who likes to dive and others who want to snorkel,
or want to participate in an interactive cultural experience,
he said. "The way we're designing the expeditions will allow
that," he said. |
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Maintaining the pristine quality
of the marine environment at Rongelap and its neighboring
atolls "is incredibly important" to the success of Rongelap
Expeditions, Wayne said. "If people are serious about tourism,
they need to protect (the natural resources). If not, we might
as well pack our bags and go home." |
