Casino—And Tourists

Vila To Have New Hotel, Casino—And Tourists

From Robert Langdon in Vila A two-storey hotel, including a casino, is being built on the Vila waterfront opposite Rossi’s Hotel Vailele. It is ex pected to be completed by the end of January, 1964.

HE hotel will have accommoda for 50 people, and the building :lf, exclusive of the land, will cost much as £150,000. fhe casino, which will be open to rists, will have games of roulette, dge, poker, baccarat and chemin fer. There will also be poker chines. \ French company, the Societe mobiliere des Nouvelles Hebrides NH), is financing the building of hotel. The managing director and gest shareholder in SINK is M. ymond Lavoix, a leading Noumea dnessman with big real estate in ists. tf. Pierre Bourgeois, manager of brida, one of the biggest import lort firms in the New Hebrides, is fiber shareholder in SINH. He is a a partner, with Mr. Joe Mulders, Coral Tours Melanesie, which will se and operate the new hotel.

Vlr. Mulders, who was born in gium and who has had experience the tourist and travel business in ;nna, London and Sydney, will nage the hotel and will be in irge of its tourist activities.

Fhe hotel will be called Hotel te —Vate being the French name Efate, the island on which Vila situated.

The ground floor will comprise eight shops, a restaurant and a hall.

One of the shops will be the office of New Hebrides Airways. Another will be a curio shop.

On the first floor there will be seven bedrooms and two studios each with their own bathrooms and toilets, and three suites with their own kit chens, bathrooms, toilets and living rooms.

On the second floor there will be

seven bedrooms, two studios, one suite and a large hall. The hall will be taken over by the New Hebrides Club and used as the casino.

Although the casino will be open to tourists, local people will be denied admittance unless they are members of the New Hebrides Club.

With offices in Noumea and Syd ney, the lessees of the hotel, Coral Tours, will make the first really or ganised attempt to promote tourism in the New Hebrides.

Coral Tours will run a bus which will pick up passengers at the airport and take them on tours, which the hotel will organise. It will also pro vide dug-out canoes for the use of guests in Vila Harbour.

Tourist trips to Tanna will be organised in conjunction with New Hebrides Airways. Arrangements are in hand to provide accommodation at Tanna in native huts with all mod. cons., similar to the bures at Fiji’s Korolevu Hotel.

If the hotel proves as popular as the interested parties hope, the build ing will be extended to accommodate about 100 people.

There is no doubt that Vila can do with another hotel as Rossi’s Hotel, which only has bedroom accommo dation for 20, is frequently full.

But many people in Vila say that the prices at the new hotel (said to be up to £8 a day for rooms) will be too high for most tourists, and that Rossi’s Hotel, besides being cheaper (£2/10/- a day for rooms at present) has the advantage of being right on the waterfront, whereas the new hotel is on the opposite side of the road.

However, the new hotel will com mand a fine view of the harbour from its upper floors and will be air-condi tioned, which Rossi’s Hotel at present is not.

Work proceeding on Vila's new waterfront hotel and casino. In the background is Vila Harbour, with Iririki Island on the left.

Vila's present hotel, Rossi's Hotel Vailele, has a beautiful position right on the waterfront —in fact, this verandah is built over the harbour.