• Research Taina's Place and discover what to see and do in 'Eua and Tonga
• Book your international flights and Taina's Place in 'Eua
• Review and recommend Taina's Place, 'Eua and Tonga
• Share your 'Eua and Tonga experiences, so your friends and fellow travelers can like and comment on your travel anecdotes and photos

TainasPlace.com now has:

• An interactive Google map featuring Taina's Place, scenic spots in 'Eua, international and domestic airports, ferry terminals, the Tonga Visitors Bureau offices and more here
• International flight booking widgets for Air New Zealand and Pacific Blue here
• 'Like' and 'Share' buttons for 285 social media applications including Facebook, Twitter and Google Buzz on every page
• A customised Facebook business page (Facebook.com/TainasPlace) and related badge on every page of TainasPlace.com
• Trip Advisor accommodation recommendation, bravo and review badges on every page

TainasPlace.com also features:

• Taina's up-to-date accommodation information, pictures, rates and services
• Clearly visible contact information and 'book now' calls to action for business lead generation
• Unique accommodation selling points including "100% owned and operated", "FREE map with detailed information" for active travellers and "Three Languages Spoken"
• Unique destination selling points, including an activities page featuring  hiking, whale watching, scuba diving, mountain biking, horse riding, cultural tours, fishing, handicrafts, the island weekend disco and Sunday Church
• Photographic libraries including accommodation and services, 'Eua scenery, traveller activities, Tongan culture and Taina and her family
• A news section, which allows Taina to communicate with stakeholders regularly,advertise current travel packages and deals and promote Taina’s Place, ‘Eua Island and the Kingdom of Tonga

TainasPlace.com place Owner and operator Taina Taufalele said "I'm really excited about TainasPlace.com. I would especially like to thank Benja William and Sibylla. Benja developed printed marketing materials and compiled a comprehensive photo library. Sibylla showed Beni and myself how to move the print based content online and advised on how to implement strategic and interactive website features. In the short term, I look forward to using all the tools Benja and Sibylla have taught me to grow my business and promote Taina's Place, 'Eua Island and the Kingdom of Tonga. In the long term, I might translate my website into German, which I also speak fluently, and increase my exposure in that target market."

 
About Taina
Taina grew up on ‘Eua. In the late 1970’s she went to Nuku’alofa and began work in the hospitality industry.
In 1979, Taina married a German and went to live in his country. The wedding was held at the time on ‘Eua with over 500 guests (including her husband’s family from Europe). In Germany, people were entranced by her exotic looks and she was employed there as a model.

On returning to ‘Eua in 1998, she started building Taina’s Place which opened a year later. The Maxi Disco on ‘Eua, which Taina also started, took its name from her pet cat in Germany!

Taina met her Tongan husband Tei on the ‘Eua ferry in the 1990s and now they have 4 children together (Benny, Loui, Luisa and Chrissy).

Taina still gets plenty of opportunity to practise her fluent German, as she gets many surprised visitors from Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Looking after visitors from all around the world, preparing nice flowers and making delicious food is simply what Taina loves doing.

About Benja William
Beni first visited 'Eua in 1984 as part of trip around the Pacific on the deck of a cargo ship. Originally from New Zealand, Beni spent 3 years at school in Western Samoa in the 1970's, where he began his lifelong association with island Polynesia. He didn't return to 'Eua until February 2009 (silly boy) and discovered the wonderful piece of paradise which is Taina's Place. He has visited Taina's another 3 times since and has been very helpful in creating detailed 'Eua map and info sheets, flyers, extensive wall displays, and now together with Taina and Sibylla, a new website. He is very happy to be a part of the Taina's Place community!

About Sibylla

As the Media and Communications Officer for the Tongan Government's Ministry of Tourism, Sibylla is working collaboratively with stakeholders and focused on the development and international destination marketing of sustainable, community based tourism projects in Tonga as a means for social, economic and low carbon development.

Sibylla is employed through the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development capacity building program (an initiative of the Australian Government overseas aid agency AusAID). Sibylla is also working with Pacific Asia Tourism Pty Ltd, which is a founding member of the Oceania Sustainable Tourism Alliance and focused on contributing to the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

Prior to working and living in Tonga, Sibylla worked as a Strategist at Google Australia and as an instructional designer for e-learning. View Sibylla's LinkedIn profile here.

Sibylla is an exhibiting artist and you can find her etchings, drawings and paintings at galleries around Australia (including the EWART Gallery, the Riverbank Gallery, Taste Canowindra and Newport Artworks). Whilst visiting ‘Eua Island, Sibylla fell in love with the subtropical rainforest on Taina’s doorstep, the wild beauty of the coast and the Euan way of life. View Sibylla's artworks here.

The Before Shot

Prior to implementing the new strategic and interactive features, TainasPlace.com looked like this:

How TainasPlace.com was updated

New Strategic and Interactive Features for TainasPlace.com were implemented using:

• Webnode website builder (Google Sites, Joomla, Wordpress and Weebly are some other available options)
• A customised Google Map
• TripAdvisor.com recommendation, bravo and review badges
• Add This ‘like’ and ‘share’ buttons for over 285 social media applications including Facebook, Twitter and Google Buzz
• Facebook business page and page badge
• Air New Zealand’s flight booking widget
• Pacific Blue flight booking widget
• Google Analytics, which gives rich insights into website traffic and marketing effectiveness.
• Google Webmasters, which shows Google's view of a site, diagnoses problems related to crawling, classifies link and query traffic and communicates sitemaps

More Marketing Tips
Sibylla's previous marketing tips include:

• 3 Easy Steps To Improve Your Online Marketing
• More tips on improving your online marketing
• Google Analytics: Explore, Discover, Act
• TongaHoliday.com – Like It AND Share It

Note: This news post was reproduced with the kind permission of the Tonga Visitors Bureau (Ministry of Tourism).

“Experience ‘Eua” information signs and “Welcome to ‘Eua” signs were installed at the wharf and at the airport .

“Welcome to the village” signs were installed in 15 villages including Tufuvai, Mata’aho, Sapa’ata, Fata’ulua, Mu’a, Tongamama’o, Petani, Kolomaile, ‘Esia, Futu, Pangai, Angaha, ‘Ohonua, Ta’anga and Houma.

A direction sign was installed near the airport, directing travelers to town and to the Halouma Rock Garden (in the South of ‘Eua Island).

A double sided ‘Eua National Park information sign was installed near the Tonga Visitors Bureau, directing travelers to ‘Eua National Park and the Forest Plantation Walks.

Tu’u Taki Hausia, President of the ‘Eua Eco Tourism Association (EETA), said “To build a tourism infrastructure, you need to lay a solid foundation to build on. Signage is one of the first foundation components of building a tourism infrastructure. We are extremely grateful to NZAID for the funding, to the Tonga Visitors Bureau (Ministry of Tourism) for overseeing the signage project and to Magic Signs for printing and installing the signage boards. I personally would also like to thank volunteers from ‘Eua Eco Tourism Association (EETA) for helping with the installation of the signage boards. Travelers now have basic directions to access and experience ‘Eua’s natural wonders. Locals will benefit from the signs, which also display information and directions in Tongan language. In the future, ‘Eua Eco Tourism Association plans to address another foundation component – waste disposal infrastructure and education programs aimed at travelers and the local community.”

Geographically ‘Eua is the oldest and highest island in the Kingdom of Tonga and was created by the uplifting of the Tongan Plate some 40 million years ago. Tongan legend says the god Maui stood on ‘Eua when he fished the islands of Tongatapu, Ha’apai and Vava’u from the depths of the sea (10 million years ago). Rugged and hilly ‘Eua lies just off the South-Eastern tip of Tongatapu. Large scale tourism does not exist on ‘Eua – it is a quiet, peaceful and noncommercial tourist destination. ‘Eua is an ideal destination those wanting adventure, to be in touch with nature and to experience the daily life of different culture.

Local Tongan guides introduce you to people in their community, so you can experience daily life on ‘Eua. Attend local celebrations and events (where possible), listen to the amazing Tongan church choirs on Sundays, gather food from local plantations, learn to prepare and cook local food the Tongan way, watch ‘tapa’ cloth being made, learn mat or basket weaving, go drinking at local kava halls and dance at the local ice cream disco.

‘Eua is perfect for hiking, climbing, caving, bush walking, bird watching, mountain biking, beach horse riding, whale watching, whale swimming, snorkeling and scuba diving.

Take a guided or unguided hike through pristine subtropical rainforest. Head past dramatic high cliffs, into caves and sinkholes, along ridges and wild coastlines, over grassy plains that wild horses call their home, around rocky gardens and to limestone archways. Watch and listen to the birds in the National Park including the ‘koki’, ‘Eua’s indigenous red-breasted musk parrot. Rest on unspoiled beaches and discover coral fossils in the reef rock and ancient stone slabs traditionally used for Royal tombs.

Go diving in the largest underwater caves in the South Pacific, one of which is likened to diving in an underwater cathedral. The ‘Cathedral’ lives up to its name, with natural light illuminating a 20 – 30 metre deep underwater amphitheatre teeming with dynamic coral of all the colours of a stained glass window. Float on through a 15 metre tunnel to see, but hopefully not feel, lobsters clustered on the cave walls. Exit to see schools of giant dogtooth tuna and lion fish, white tip sharks, turtles, rays and the other big creatures that inhabit deep water surrounding ‘Eua Island, which lies close to the 10.8 metre Tongan Trench (the second deepest trench in the world).

Magnificent humpback whales swim close to ‘Eua Island on route to and from breeding grounds around the Kingdom of Tonga from July to November. Slip into the water to swim with the humpback whales (in one of the few countries in the world where this is allowed). Or simply relax on a cliff top, at your accommodation or on the beach and watch the powerful aerial displays of one of the largest marine mammals in the world.

This article has been reproduced with the kind permission of the Tonga Visitors Bureau (Ministry of Tourism).