Tourism-Should The

Now Fiji Has a Word or Two . . .

Government Pay The Rill?

From a Fiji Correspondent Fiji is one of the South Pacific territories which has made a real effort to develop a tourist industry since the end of World War II but that no one is complacent or even happy about it is evident from the hotly partisan views of this special correspondent who takes up typewriter to have a few plain words on the subject.

FIJI’S first local conference on tourism came and went late November, and while there may have been the usual explosions of hot air, which are expected at nearly every conference, some statements made by delegates were worth noting.

For instance, Mr. Ron Gould of Pan American Airways, warned that unless Fiji’s tourist trade was fur ther developed, aircraft might by pass Fiji in the future because the landing charges are amongst the highest in the world.

Although the United States is not a member of the South Pacific Air Transport Council which administers Nadi, this caution from a paying cus tomer seemed worth heeding, parti cularly in the light of Mr. Gould’s estimate that putting down at Nadi

costs an airline company about $200,000 a year.

At present, Mr, Gould said, it cost only 25 dollars to land at Tafuna, American Samoa, and while he did not imply that charges would be any thing as low as that when the new jet runway is completed by mid -1962, his statement that Nadi could expect some keen competiton then seemed timely. It does not take much imagination to realise that the bulk of PAA’s passenger tourists would settle for Samoa as their haven in the South Seas if their welcome were pleasant enough and that was where PAA landed them.

As TEAL’s commercial manager Mr. H. Denton pointed out, airlines are in business to operate economi cally and profitably, and matters such as landing fees are vital con siderations. Mr. Denton also warned that Fiji must be quick to encourage operators to come to the Colony.

Having digested all this, explana tions by the Fiji Controller of Civil Aviation, Mr. G. Smith, as to why Nadi costs so much to land on seemed cold comfort.

The most controversial and probably the most unpopular sug gestion made at the conference was that Fiji should establish a gambling casino—but even this subject had its value if it stimulated public interest in the industry. [Said the Fiji Times editorially and with somewhat grandmotherly con cern; “If Fiji has to be a tourist ‘paradise’ of one kind or another, a duty-free shoppers’ paradise is in finitely preferable to a gamblers’ paradise. If Noumea chooses to turn itself into an imitation Las Vegas that is no reason for Fiji’s following suit.”] Fiji Broadcasting Corporation rep resentative, Mr. J. S. W. Stannage, thought it a great pity that delegates continued to “whine” about the Gov ernment not doing this and that when it was yet to be proved that the people who got most out of the industry were contributing most to it (Over)

ss Laurayne Thurley, recently n as “Miss Hibiscus, 1961” of photographed on board the on Liner “Mariposa” when she

d Sydney in early December.

Thurley’s prize was a round trip in Francisco by Matson Liner.

Conference chairman Mr. cJ Stinson admitted that some bi nesses had incurred his criticism ! that he was critical of Governmei too. And when someone like J Stinson, well-known for his volil tary efforts as mayor and businei man to stimulate the tourist ini try, says the Government’s attiti to tourism “lacks drive” one fe he knows what he is talking abou According to PIM (Travel Is October, 1961) tourism in Hau gives the US Government 20 or times as much as the Governmr spends on it, and when a counti finances are in such a parlous cc dition as Fiji’s it does not seemii much to expect Fiji’s Governmr to take the initiative instead of wr ing for one or a number of cuj shops to jump first.

As to the Governor’s cautionr note in his speech in LegccJ November about the social effe of tourism having to be “watch© there are many who feel that i social effects of unemployment* the much greater evil.