PACIFIC ISLANDS TRAVEL/TOURISM

I was hired by Lonely Planet specifically for a Pacific Island focus, as that was a 'gap' at a company with a historical focus on Asia.

I was the coordinating author (and in fact coord editor too) of the first edition of Lonely Planet South Pacific, the book that finally filled in the last gap to make the company's coverage truly global. This involved months of research and writing, particularly putting together History, Culture and other background text, as well as the logistical task of creating consistency in twenty other authors' submissions. A huge project.

"Ghost writer" on LP's Tuvalu Time & Tide book, with LP co-founder Tony Wheeler, photographer Peter Bennett, and the Tuvaluan government. Involved listening to hours of recorded interviews to flesh out the background - a sobering task.

Commissioned all of LP's Pacific-islands guides at least once each (Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, Micronesia), as well as overseeing multiple editions as Assoc. Publisher.

Writing for, or consulting on, other LP Pacific Island products: web, Bluelist, TV. Including writing on countries such as Tokelau, Pitcairn Island, and other destinations with not-much other content available.

Forging links with tourism industry and government sources in the Pacific: Tonga, Samoa, etc, finding hard-to-find stats.

Some Pacific-tourism media work on ABC radio in Australia.

On-the-road research in Rarotonga and the Cook Islands.

Pushing Pacific-island tourism in New Zealand via guidebooks, other writing and media: A uniquely NZ experience that the tourism industry has been slow to recognise.

Travel in Tonga, Samoa, Rarotonga and Fiji.