Role of the Bar
p. 85 · Read in the full issue
Govt. Asked For
Help
Role of the Bar In Hotel Business
fTVHE Fiji Visitors’ Bureau, the i local tourist organisation, has decided to ask the Govern ment of the Colony to provide financial assistance to overcome Suva’s hotel-accommodation bottle neck This seems to end local wishful thinking that some overseas in terests, notably the Matson ship ping line, will act as fairy god mothers in the matter and provide Suva with a tourist hotel.
No one seems to have much hope that the new scheme will get much past the asking stage—the Govern ment is traditionally opposed to getting involved in commerce; and on a previous occasion turned down a suggestion that easy loans should be made available for hotel build ing.
Whatever may be the experience abroad with the accommodation side of the hotel business, all hotel proprietors in this part of the world are convinced that it is the bar trade that makes the profit— and no one has been able to prove them wrong. One reason lately ad vanced to explain the reluctance of local private enterprise to provide tourist accommodation in Suva, is the growth in the number of licensed clubs in and around the city. It is believed that club licences will continue to be granted freely and that clubs will drain off more and more drinking customers from the hotels.