A terrible year, with almost no tourism, has just hit Polynesia. The coronavirus crisis has caused the shutdown of air transport, the cancellation of XXL cruises, the closure of hotels and the unemployment of hundreds of employees linked to the tourism sector so vital to the local economy.
The Covid pandemic mainly offers a unique opportunity for tourism to reinvent itself and better adapt to tomorrow's world. It seems to accelerate the movement and the reflection on concrete alternatives for a tourism more respectful of the inhabitants, the culture and the environment.
How can we imagine new ways to discover Polynesia? Can we think of a tourism that is more respectful of the inhabitants, the culture and the environment? From the protection of corals by the fishermen of Punaauia and the discovery of ancestral statues in the Marquesas Islands, to the learning of the Polynesian pirogue in Moorea, a whole people is adapting to the challenges of the 21st century, and proposes concrete alternatives of slow-tourism or eco-tourism.
Direction: Pierre Belet & Sibylle d'Orgeval
Production: ZED for France Télévisions