Tonga’s new tourism website launched last week.

TheKingdomOfTonga.com was developed by top New Zealand creative agency Logan Brooke Communications for Tourism Tonga* as part of a newly launched “Tonga. The Real Polynesia” marketing campaign.

The website is an essential tool for launching the Kingdom of Tonga into the 21st Century digital era, given data showing 77% of all trips booked involve online research (according to a Jigsaw Research and Google Australia Travel Study 2009).

Google data shows that the (broad match) keyword “tonga” is searched globally over 500,000 times a month.

So if the new website converts just 1% of those Google searches, “The Friendly Islands” would be saying malo e lelei to 10% more tourists in one month alone than 2009. Given tourism figures are trending downwards, and the tough economic conditions, the Ministry of Tourism and Tourism Tonga would be happy if they reached their goal of 10% increase in tourist arrivals for all of 2010.

So again, make sure you check out: TheKingdomOfTonga.com

* Tourism Tonga is a private sector umbrella for the Tongan tourism industry.