Tahiti Gets Going With Its Tourist Industry

Its Tourist Industry

From a Special Correspondent in Papeete With the recent opening of the new Papeete-Faaa 7,200t airstrip, which establishes direct contact between Tahiti nolulu and points south and eliminates flying-boat service m Bora Bora—Tahiti is finally launched into the tourist \ustry .

,EE airlines—TAl (Transports eri e n s Intercontinentaux), )uth Pacific Air Lines (Dollar , and TEAL—are now making andings each week with plane of up to 66 passengers. •k on the airstrip still con , from dawn until midnight, i convoy of trucks bringing in material in order to extend inway to a jet-size 10,200 feet, letion date for the extended y is May, 1961, when Tahiti ecome less than seven hours’ time from Los Angeles, airstrip is not yet fitted with c landing lights, but night ffs are being made with the kerosene lamps.

Lack of Hotels opening of the airstrip, and iw, increased influx of tourists tiiti has brought to light the m of a lack of hotel rooms in te, and especially the lack of lass hotels to accommodate urists—of whom an approxi -35-70 per cent, come from the I States. d Tahiti, the newest and luxurious bungalow hotel, ed largely by American I, reports heavy bookings in ber, January and February, in Df the months being Tahiti’s season. problem of a lack in tourist modations has been aggra by the arrival of 125 Metro yn-Mayer actors and tech s, together with their families, ave established themselves in and private homes and will i in Tahiti for at least six s (see accompanying story ). m interview with the little 7 Tahitian newssheet Les lies, Raoul Bertrand, former 3r of Commerce, Industry Tourism in Morocco, and i Consul in San Francisco, )58, stated that although new construction was progressing i Tahiti, and the Polynesian hotel bungalows were com [e, modern and artistic, the or more accommodation, and sing price of land, will force instruction of hotel buildings re than one storey. :1 Tahiti has taken the lead 3 new type of hotel building,

with for twn od

storev‘‘Lonff f HoiS?” Si

been y anmovld H bv S nip French h AH ministration. ThJ fl?st unit should be completed by May, 1961, and the second by July, 1961, to help accom modate the tourists who arrive in Tahiti for the Bastille Day celebra- U( S®- . ... two-storey units will be the first ever to be built in Tahiti outside of Papeete.

Raoul Bertrand added that Tahiti should look ahead and plan for the construction of mountain roads leading to the higher plateaux, in order to P rovide additional land for e C TsSn“onomv° h6IP ° Pen P tne iSland S economy

ivlore Airstrips

Plans, he said, should be started for the building of aerodromes on the neighbouring islands, and an in crease of tourist facilities in Bora Bora and Moorea. (Over)

urged, also, plans for the ng— possibly in 1961 —of a Training School. Although 7ahitians are a happy, friendly imiling race, the lack of trained :e for tourists is a handicap, lined Tahitians, many of whom never worked before, are now 1 employed in all departments e new hotels. anwhile, tourists are arriving ahiti in a steady stream, to t with travel agents—mainly the USA who come on tation trips to take stock of uture of tourism—and its short igs—in Tahiti.

Papeete Chamber of Commerce ng was organised in November le French Government Tourist 3 to make contact with visiting (n travel agents and represent -3 of airlines and shipping ser re than 100 ASTA (American ty of Travel Agencies) mem visited Tahiti in November, ig them are Leon C. Morrier,

commercial director of the eastern branch of United Airlines; M. De Tarnowski, director of Sabena in Washington, and Henry Chase, pre sident of ASTA for Southern Cali fornia.

French Administration is fully aware of the problems which con front Tahiti with the opening up of the tourist industry.

Recent Government Council de cisions have established a five-years plan of social and economic de velopment for the period 1961-1965, with emphasis not only on the ex pansion of health and education but also on tourism. In their plan is in cluded a far-sighted project for the opening of a centre next year for the training of Tahitian workmen in

building construction.

Indonesian Army Head

To Visit Australia

General Abdul Nasution, Indo nesia’s often quoted Defence Min is te r and Army Chief-of-Staff (mostly he can be heard attacking the Dutch over the NNG issue) will visit Australia in 1961.

The invitation was extended by Australia, and General Nasution said in November that during his visit he wanted to allay any Australian “misunderstanding” about Indo nesian ambitions in New Guinea.

He said he wanted to convince Aus tralians that Indonesia had no in tention of making a claim on the eastern half of New Guinea,