“Explore American Samoa” — a new guidebook to the territory

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Government officials, business representatives and friends gathered at the DDW Restaurant last week to witness the official launch of a guidebook for the territory called, “Explore American Samoa”.

The book was written by Melinda Laura Clayville, founder and creator of AmSamFam (American Samoa Family). The book is a literal guided tour around the islands, including directions to hiking trails and suggested itineraries from a local resident.

It also provides visitors with helpful information regarding accommodations, phone and internet usage, medical facilities, and more, so they’ll be ready to hit the ground running. Furthermore, the book also includes local legends, traditions and information on local plants and animals, for the more curious visitors.

Chamber of Commerce head, Ella Gurr welcomed everyone gathered at the book launching ceremony last week. Among them was the Secretary of the Office of Samoan Affairs, Paramount Mauga Tasi Asuega, along with several members of Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga’s Cabinet.

Gurr said that as we continue to work through COVID-19’s economic, social and fiscal impact — there is a clear certainly of an end to it and a return to normalcy. We are seeing hope for the domestic tourist market.

She said while large-scale tourism will be one of the last facets of normal society to recover from the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, domestic tourism will be the first signs of recovery. With lockdown and social distancing restrictions easing across the globe, domestic tourism is set to play a vital role in the rebuilding of the economy and act as an indicator for the health and security of nations.

Because the surge will happen at different rates across the globe, domestic tourism will recover erratically. Some countries may kick their economy quickly back into gear, while others will struggle for a longer period of time.

The reason for this delay is the idea that the attitudes, motivations, and preferences of tourists will have changed for the foreseeable future, perhaps forever. Gurr said that tourism is a mainstay in our neighboring Pacific economies. Tourism is a key driver amongst the South Pacific islands economics including Fiji, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Samoa and Tonga.

Pre-COVID visitor ship numbers were increasing in the Pacific islands from neighboring countries such as Australia & New Zealand.

“Both these nations have fought the virus successfully, which could indicate bounce back significantly of travelers after any lockdown. In fact, neighboring nations are already looking at coming to travel agreements allowing travelers to move freely between the Pacific Region,” Gurr said.

As American Samoa continues its tourism development, its’ partnerships between the private sector and the American Samoa Government (ASG) should continue to parallel, such as the launching of the Explore American Samoa book. She stated that the tourism industry covers various sectors of the economy such as; accommodations; adventures tourism & recreation; attractions; food & beverages, conferences; tourism services; transportation; travel trade and technology.

When given the chance to explain her passion and the reason behind this book, Clayville said that this book is a project she worked on for almost three years.

“When someone gets off the plane and doesn’t know where to go or what to do, this guidebook will help them find their way around here in the territory,” Clayville told Samoa News.

She told those gathered how she and her family first came into American Samoa.

“When we came into American Samoa we knew no one here. This was the time that I would have given almost everything to have a book to guide me through life and how to find my way around and how to discover the island,” Clayville said.

From the moment when they stepped off the place at the Pago Pago airport, there were very few things they knew.

“I knew it’s hot. I knew it was very humid I knew that there is something special about this place.”

The next day she and her kids got an aiga bus and they came into town and just started to figure out what this new place is all about.

“By the time we got home that night I wanted to share my first impressions about this place. The beauty of the island, the landscape here is unlike any other place I had ever seen before. I discovered the people of American Samoa are the friendliest people on earth. The friendship and the generosity of the people here is unmatched to anything I ever experienced before.”

“So I heard of this place called Blunts Point and everyone says we have to check out Blunts Point. So I said, okay, how do I get there, well, you drive down the road, and then you got to park at this parking lot and then you walk behind the laundromat and then you find the trail head. I said, wow, that is very good information that needs to be available for people.”

“So, we were told that Blunts Point’s trail is short and easy, so, we stop at the laundromat we got some snacks, grabbed some drinks so I looked up the trail and started taking pictures of the kids playing around and if you see our video you can see my kids wasting no time at all but exploring the place and pretty soon they said, Mom, there’s chairs over here.”

“Can we go and check what comes after this. Okay, let’s go there, there’s another cannon. Not that I knew that it was the beginning of another trail — not short — and not easy but my kids were so excited and I was excited too. Discovering our new home and exploring it — I was like my kids. Then we kept on going and going and going pretty soon we discovered the rope ladder at the end of the trail and my kids were having a blast and at the end of the trail we were tired, we were hungry and we were thirsty.”

“From that moment I knew that this is going to be a good home for our family. We came here on a two-year contract and as we’re nearing the end of our contract, I have a lot of mixed emotions and one of those emotions is knowing that I could do more.”

Speaking about her guidebook, Clayville said that there’s a lot of information about American Samoa that needs to be shared so that the world may understand what American Samoa is about.

“So I started the process. I started searching. I fell in love with this island with the culture, the history and absolutely with the people. I did a lot of talking to people to learn more about all these different parts of American Samoa and I got to the point where I wanted to share it with the world so that they can understand how beautiful American Samoa is,” she concluded.