Request For Fiji Tourist Survey

Fiji Tourist Survey

Prom a Suva Correspondent Tourists come to Fiji because the Colony offers something dif ferent. That seemed to be the general conclusion of a confer ence on tourism held at the Mocambo Hotel, Nadi Airport.

The conference discussed a wide number of subjects, all aimed at increasing the profitability of the industry.

THERE was general agreement

that: • Some firms which benefited did not contribute to the funds of the Fiji Visitors Bureau; • An imitation Honolulu was not wanted in Fiji; • More hotel rooms would soon be needed, particularly near beaches; and • The Government should give a priority to an analysis of the industry to assess its value to the Colony.

The Development Commissioner, Mr. Eric Bevington, set the ball roll ing with a typical hard-hitting speech in which he defended the Govern ment against criticism that it had not given more money to the Fiji Visitors Bureau.

Strident criticism which had been evident at the 1961 conference, was not the way to win friends and in fluence people, he said.

The way to get more money out jf the Government was to present i convincing case. Not only had the Government to be convinced, but the tourist industry, through the Visitors Bureau, had to enlist general public support and sympathy.

Mr, Bevington said Fiji provided something different for the person in Australia or NZ who did not have a yery deep purse. Fiji was close to those countries, travel was easy and the fare was reasonable. Thus Fiji bad a big advantage over Singapore, Hongkong and Hawaii in attracting tourists.

Mr. J. Minehan, assistant sales manager for Qantas, said that the Australian tourist in Fiji neither wanted nor expected to find a “com mercialised imitation of Honolulu”.

A typical setting, bure-type accom modation, island feasts and an atmos

phere completely different from any thing he would find at home were what the Australian tourist hoped for.

Mr. Minehan said that Fiji was not taking advantage of what it had to offer—especially shopping.

Mrs. Iris Hunt, of Hunt’s Travel Service, considered that if airlines made their off-season rates for travel from Australia coincide with Fiji’s “off-season”, more people would come to Fiji.

The Mayor of Suva, Cr. C. A.

Stinson, who chaired the conference and who has devoted much time to developing the tourist industry, changed the subject abruptly when he complained of alleged unfair trading practices in luxury goods. Some traders, he complained, had cut prices to an unrealistic level.

In some cases, especially with transistor radios, a price of 5 per cent, on cost was the sale price. In extreme cases radios were sold below cost.

“We could safely add 30 per cent, or even 40 per cent, on the cost of radios and still send people home say ing what a bargain they had got in Fiji,” Mr. Stinson said.

He added there was a possibility that unscrupulous people might, if not curbed, push reputable traders out of the market. He did not say how this sort af thing could be curbed.