travel

Fiji Hotels In An Expanding Mood To Deal With The Increasing Tourist Flood

A Regular Piaa Department

Reporting News Of South

Seas Tourism And Travel

From The Inside

From a Suva Correspondent

Fiji tourism in March was still suffering some post hurricane blues but there were signs that the Hotels Aids Ordinance, which came into force in 1964, is beginning to bear some fruit with additions and renovations to existing establishments. It is obvious, however, that what is on the stocks in 1965 will barely cope with the increasing flood of tourists to Fiji.

THE only wholly new tourist hotel that will open its doors in 1965 will be the Hotel Tanoa, built by Reddy Construction Co. and managed by Mr. John Beresford.

This is on a hilltop overlooking the Nadi River, on one side, and the Nadi international airport on the other. It is about half a mile away from the Mocambo Hotel.

The hotel management expects to be in business by the end of March or early in April with 20 of its bedrooms and all of its public rooms. The other wing of 20 bedrooms will be completed within the next month or so.

Single and twin-bedrooms will be available, each with toilet and shower. The rooms are of good size, tastefully furnished and decorated and initially 11 of the first 20 will be individually air-conditioned. Air conditioning will be installed in all bedrooms eventually.

The layout of the hotel is roughly triangular. The public rooms, in cluding the dining room and terrace, with a very pleasant view out over the Nadi River Valley, canefields and mountains, is the base of the triangle; the two bedroom blocks lead off from it, forming the sides but not quite meeting at the apex.

The triangle layout encloses an interior garden-court in which a swimming pool is to be built.

The Tanoa is a worthy addition to first-class Fiji hotels and more than welcome. Occupancy rate at hotels in other localities in Fiji fluctuates considerably but the hotels in the area around the Nadi airport are constantly bursting at the seams.

New bedrooms, rearrangement of public rooms and a swimming pool

are planned for the Nadi Hotel in Nadi township. The Nadi Hotel, one of the Northern Hotels chain, went into business in the early 1950’s long before any of the present tourist hotels around the international air port were built.

It has attracted a steady clientele from those who prefer a smaller hotel closer to the shopping facilities of the town and with its additions will undoubtedly attract more. (Over)

Fiji's Korolevu Beach Hotel, which has a new swimming pool, patio, lounge and bar (top picture) still retains its popularity against keen competition from Fiji's growing resort areas. Be low is the entrance to the new Hotel Tanoa, as it was in early March when construction was entering its final stage. Hot water tanks are stacked under the portico, and palm trees, for replanting in the court-yard, are seen at left. The hotel should be open for business before Easter.

The Fiji Hotel Scene

(Continued from previous page) The Mocambo, the largest of the Nadi area hotels was still without the roof to its block of luxury apartments in mid-March. The roof went with the hurricane in February and as a result of the floods of rain that accompanied it, the whole of the interior fittings and furnishings had to be taken out and renovated or replaced.

Swarms of workmen are on the job and the rebuilding is expected to be completed in April.

The older bedroom blocks suffered some superficial damage from water driven in by 100 mph winds. But now that the hurricane season is over, the owners plan large-scale repainting and redecorating of the hotel (see picture, p. 128).

In March, the United States owners of the Mocambo were also re examining their plan for a tourist hotel near Cuvu on the Sigatoka coast. The idea is to site the hotel on Yanuca Island and build a bridge or causeway over the narrow channel of tidal water to join it to Queen’s Road on the mainland.

Renovation In Suva, at the moment, the only activity on the hotel front is renova tion work at the Grand Pacific Hotel. The whole top floor of the original building is being torn about to provide new bedrooms with bathrooms. At the same time, the back half of the wide verandah which once encircled the building and was a feature of the old hotel has been closed in to provide more bedroom space.

The GPH has enlarged its dining room again and this now extends within a few feet of the sea wall.

A large swimming pool with a tiled patio area is now in operation in the garden.

The GPH was the southern limit of the reclamation work along Suva foreshore that has gone on, in fits and starts, for the last half century. But a new area of reclamation has now been started just south of the hotel and will provide several acres of new land in the next year or so. At present it consists only of an outer perimeter wall but this has been welcomed by local fishing enthusiasts who find it a good spot from which to cast a line. • “Fijian Escapade”, a 26-minute colour film just produced by Hewlett, Keeling Associates for Northern Hotels Ltd., Fiji, shows the travel pattern around Viti Levu. It will be available to the travel trade and for TV showing.