Attracting Tourists

Tahiti’s Bold Bid Abolition of Tax on Foreigners

From Our Own Correspondent PAPEETE, October 8.

ANEW regulation, of considerable importance to the tourist vis iting Tahiti, was promulgated in The Journal Offlciel of October 1.

By this enactment the “taxe d’im matriculation” and the tax on pass port visas, hitherto imposed on foreigners entering the Colony, are abolished, from January 1, 1932.

From that date foreigners will also be exempt from the residential tax for a period of two months after their arrival. If they elect to remain longer than two months, however, they become liable to pay the resi dential tax amounting to 500 francs (about £7 in Australian money) which will hold good for one year; renewals will cost 25 francs per annum. Thus one of the most irritating restraints upon the visiting foreigner is re moved.

Credit for the above achievement is largely due to the efforts of the “Syndicat dTnitiative de la Colonie de Tahiti” and its energetic Presi dent, M. Pere Rougier. This body which was formed recently, has for its chief object the organisation of the Colony from a tourist point of view, the attraction of strangers and the rendering of their stay in Tahiti easy and agreeable.

Correspondence has been estab lished with various tourist agencies abroad, and a certain amount of pub licity is afforded locally by the publi cation monthly of The Tahiti Tourist Guide, the first copy of which was issued in September. This is distri buted gratis on board the mail steamers. The Syndicate is to be con gratulated on the good work already accomplished.