The conversation around sustainable tourism frequently centers on future goals and abstract pledges.
For The Islands of Tahiti, those theoretical thresholds have already arrived. In 2025, the destination officially met its capacity milestone of one visitor per local inhabitant, a tipping point that highlights the significant pressure placed on local infrastructure.
Managing this volume across an ocean territory comparable in size to Western Europe means that even a minor spike in traditional visitor numbers can quickly strain fragile island ecosystems and local communities.
Balancing localized economic survival with strict environmental boundaries is a necessity.
To actively govern this reality, the country implemented Fāriʻiraʻa Manihini 2027, a collaborative roadmap built on 95 core actions and 40 sub-actions.
Rather than travel and tourism marketing as an isolated economic driver, the plan shifts the focus entirely toward community-based hosting, cultural protection and strict environmental boundaries.
We spoke with Vaihere Lissant, Chief Executive Officer of Tahiti Tourisme, about the operational realities of their Fāriʻiraʻa Manihini 2027 management plan, navigating investor pressures and finding the specific operational sweet spot for cruise tourism in remote island communities.
How did the groundwork laid by the Sustainable Tourism Action Plan allow this structural evolution to occur as a natural next step for stakeholders?
Our role focuses on protecting what visitors come to experience, shifting our daily operations from promotion to active stewardship. We are taking responsibility for the long-term balance of the destination rather than prioritizing just short-term success.
We know what makes our destination unique. Recent visitor insights confirm that people appreciate their stay in The Islands of Tahiti for our exceptional natural environment, our living culture and the warmth of our local communities. So stewardship, for us, is really about protecting that balance between nature, culture and people.
The COVID-19 crisis served as a turning point. It opened eyes globally and locally, reminding us that destinations like ours are fragile ecosystems instead of infinite products. It accelerated a shift in mindset across our teams and the industry.
In reality, the transition toward destination management happened quite naturally. Between 2022 and 2025, we focused heavily on collective work through our Sustainable Tourism Action Plan by raising awareness, strengthening local governance and aligning public and private stakeholders.
This is what led us to structure our approach through a destination management model supported by the Fāriʻiraʻa Manihini 2027 plan, although this transformation didn’t happen overnight. It is the result of several years of collective work, with important preliminary phases that gradually prepared the organization for this evolution.
So in many ways, the restructuring of our organization was not a disruption, but rather a natural progression, moving from a “marketing-first” organization to one that actively manages and stewards the destination for the long term.
How can management models address both economic demands and responsible stewardship simultaneously?
It’s a never-ending balancing act. Managing a destination responsibly requires handling both visitor numbers and long-term sustainability simultaneously.
Our role is to shift the conversation from volume to value, ensuring that short-term performance does not undermine the destination’s long-term balance.
How can a destination manage capacity limits while still supporting the economic goals of hospitality investors?
The “one visitor per one inhabitant” ratio is a reference point for us, not a strict cap.
In fact, reaching that threshold in 2025 triggered a fundamental shift in our model. Today, our objective has pivoted entirely from volume to value, meaning higher yield, longer stays, and a better distribution of visitors across our islands and communities.
This is especially important in a destination like The Islands of Tahiti, which covers an area as vast as Western Europe, with 118 islands spread across 5 archipelagos. Managing flows and ensuring a better distribution of economic impact across such a territory is essential.
For example, the impact of a visitor staying seven days across different islands, in hotels and engaging with local businesses, is very different from someone staying 15 days with family in only one place, with more limited economic circulation.
At the same time, clear capacity management actually protects investor value. It reduces the risk of overdevelopment, avoids market dilution and also takes into account very real constraints, such as workforce availability.
Finally, our country supports investment by rehabilitating existing tourism sites, including former hotel properties, some of which are government-owned. This allows us to generate economic impact without increasing pressure on land and communities.
How can a destination implement strict conservation regulations without compromising the premium experience that travelers expect?
Protection and experience go hand in hand. In The Islands of Tahiti, protection is exactly what makes these bucket-list experiences possible.
We have a long-standing commitment to marine protection. French Polynesia has been a marine mammal sanctuary for over 20 years, and more recently announced the protection of its entire Exclusive Economic Zone, nearly 5 million square kilometers.
On the water, this translates into clear and concrete regulations: a limited number of boats around whales, seasonal permit quotas for operators and strict approach distances. These rules are essential to prevent saturation and to protect animal behavior.
We also practice radical transparency with visitors. This is a real encounter with a living ecosystem. And that clarity actually increases the perceived value for the kind of travelers we want to attract.
Ultimately, it’s about preserving the experience itself. If we want these encounters to exist tomorrow, we have to protect them today.
Governance is key. The real risk is when tourism and environmental stakeholders operate in silos. The goal is to bring them closer together, and since we adopted a sustainable and more inclusive tourism strategy at the end of 2022, we’ve made clear progress. We work better together, and more importantly, we better understand each other’s priorities and constraints.
Because in the end, regulation only works when it is understood, shared and supported by the tourism sector.
At what scale does cruise tourism provide a vital economic lifeline to remote communities without overwhelming local infrastructure?
Cruise tourism often has a negative image when it comes to sustainability, and sometimes for good reasons.
But in island destinations like The Islands of Tahiti, it can also be part of the solution if it is designed at the right scale and with the right intent.
We make a very clear distinction between different types of cruise operations.
We actively encourage year-round cruise companies, as they generate additional value through pre- and post-stays, with visitors flying in and staying longer in the destination.
Today, over 80% of cruise ships operating within The Islands of Tahiti carry fewer than 600 passengers, which already reflects this positioning.
At the same time, large cruise ships over 3,500 passengers are allowed to transit, but only with technical stops on a limited number of islands. On the island of Bora Bora, for example, we strictly cap cruise calls to a maximum of 1,200 passengers per day.
Our strategy is long-term and very intentional. We prioritise smaller, human-scale ships that are aligned with our island infrastructure and operate year-round.
This is the sweet spot!
It’s where cruise tourism can support local economies in remote islands without overwhelming ports, villages or ecosystems.
Smaller ships also allow us to use cruise tourism as a powerful tool for dispersal. They can access smaller ports, reach more islands and bring economic activity to communities that would otherwise remain outside main tourism flows.
And in some cases, their contribution goes even further.
For example, one cruise company has established an agreement with our health authorities to make its onboard medical facilities available for consultations in remote islands, showing how cruise can support not just tourism, but also essential services.
That’s why we strongly encourage multi-island and multi-archipelago itineraries.
It helps distribute benefits more evenly and reduce pressure on our most visited islands.
At the right scale, cruise tourism becomes an economic lifeline rather than a burden.
It also plays a key role in smoothing seasonality, helping to fill low seasons, stabilize demand and make tourism more resilient for local communities.
Meet Vaihere Lissant
Tahiti Tourisme’s CEO, Vaihere Lissant, was born and raised in The Islands of Tahiti. Graduate of a leading business school, she began her career in marketing consultancy in Paris. Upon returning to The Islands of Tahiti in 2010, she continued her career in marketing within the telecommunications sector.
Since joining Tahiti Tourisme in 2014, she has held key leadership roles, culminating in her position as Chief Marketing Officer for the past decade. Her responsibilities have included destination branding, multi-market communication strategies and the management of marketing, communication and web marketing services, both locally and internationally.
She also oversaw Tahiti Tourisme’s 18 B2C websites and digital tools, ensuring the organization’s global reach and efficiency. More recently, as part of French Polynesia’s 2030 Sustainable Tourism Plan, she has collaborated closely with the local tourism authorities to drive long-term strategic initiatives.
She’s been assuming the role of CEO of Tahiti Tourisme since mid-May 2025.
