Vanuatu quake: Resorts, hotels open and ready for tourists, says business leader

The leader of the Vanuatu Business Resilience Council is pleading for airlines and tourists to return, and says only a few buildings are affected.

A large 7.3 quake struck Port Vila on Tuesday, causing some buildings to collapse with people inside.

There had been conflicting reports of the official death toll from the quake, but on Thursday evening, Vanuatu president Nikenike Vurobatavu said the number of people dead was “around 16”.

Vanuatu Business Resilience Council chair Glen Craig told Morning Report the rest of Port Vila was relatively unscathed.

“Out in the residential side of things, our communities, we’ve been largely… inconvenienced rather than really affected.”

Almost all of Port Vila now had water, and power was also being restored suburb by suburb, he said.

“There will still be pockets of things that needs to be done but generally it’s been an inconvenience and now we’re getting it back up and running.”

In his village of 6000 people, he did not know of any families that had been displaced by the quake, Craig said.

The summer holidays was an important time for the local tourism sector.

“It’s so unfortunate. We are a tourism and agriculture-focused economy… We’re looking for our first good summer, because we’ve got Jetstar, Virgin, Qantas… we’ve never had such a raft of international airlines flying in before.

“Everyone was fully booked and then this happens. The hotels and the resorts … are all ready for guests.”

The international terminal had been cleared and the runway sorted, but they were waiting for power to be restored so border control systems could operate.

The airport was expected to be open for cargo operations from 1pm Friday, and tourist operators were assuring airlines they were open for business.

“We’re really, really hoping that we’ll start to see on Sunday the first flights coming back with tourists.

“You can drive around the island and you will see some landslips on the hillsides… but if you didn’t know an earthquake had happened, you wouldn’t know apart from you would see some cracks in the road.

“I don’t want to downplay it, but from a visitor experience not much has changed.

“We’ve got to move from grieving to recovery, because we cannot allow an economic disaster to happen on top of a natural disaster.

“These businesses need that income to pay the salaries to the staff, that need to pay their school fees and buy their food.”

The first New Zealand search and rescue team arrived in Port Vila on Thursday, and a crew got to work in the rubble straight away.

The general consensus among locals was that it was now a recovery mission, rather than rescue, Craig said.

“[The hopes] have been marginalised a lot I’d have to say, just because of the conditions and the heat.”

He told Morning Report as the days passed they had not been hearing much in the rubble from the Billabong building in Port Vila, whereas before they were hearing the odd noise coming through.

“We’re uncertain of the final number that will be in there but we think it’s probably around … 12 retail clients in there at the time [of the quake], plus staff.

“We think they’ve recovered most, but there’s still some in there.”

Another five-storey building near the airport had also pancaked, and would be the next focus for rescue and recovery teams.

They would also be searching in the landslide behind the city’s wharf, as there were thought to be a number of vehicles passing through at the time of the quake, he said.

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