As part of their continued support of the Pacific Islands, P&O’s Pacific Dawn will deliver 39 cartons of books for the Friends of Pango Ministry to establish three ‘micro-libraries’ at schools in the Vanuatu archipelago.

Scheduled to arrive in Vila on Christmas Eve, the delivery will coincide with the Pacific Islands Children’s Christmas Appeal that saw Carnival Australia staff donate educational items, sports equipment and musical instruments delivered to seven P&O ports in the Pacific Islands by Pacific Dawn, Pacific Jewel and Pacific Sun.

“P&O Cruises has been sailing to the Pacific Islands for nearly 80 years and we are delighted to be in a position to do something special for the Vanuatu community at Christmas time,” Carnival Australia CEO Ann Sherry said.

Ms Sherry further detailed the activities P&O have undertaken to stimulate economic growth in the Pacific Island region at the Carnival Australia Partnership Summit onboard Dawn Princess last week.

“We’re helping communities develop tourism related business ventures. We want them to want us to come,” Ms Sherry said to the 400 travel agents gathered at the Summit.

Speaking to e-Travel Blackboard, Ms Sherry explained the need to create additional shore tours for P&O in particular, with the company investing in items including kayaks for locals to create simple cultural experiences for their passengers.

“For P&O our challenge has been to build more shore tours. So we’ve been working very hard in the more remote places to work with locals on the islands to create experiences that we can then sell.”

These activities round off a year of initiatives by Carnival Australia designed to assist in the economic growth of island communities in the Pacific region.

Originally published for e-Travel Blackboard.

A word from Natalie…

It’s great to see P&O truly get into the Christmas spirit and assist those in need over the festive season.

The Pacific Islands are the company’s bread and butter, with cruises to the region more popular than ever, especially for those Aussies wanting an island getaway closer to home.

Now from this computer to yours on Christmas Day, may you and your family have a wonderful, healthy and love-filled festive season and I hope that Santa delivered a few cruises overnight!

Thank you for reading and sharing my blog and I hope that you continue to enjoy the news and reviews I bring you from around the world in 2012.

Merry Christmas!!

Natalie Aroyan
Editor