Hotels In

Move To Develop

Western Samoa

From R. F. Rankin in Apia A public company, the Western Samoa Hotel Company Ltd., has been formed to develop hotel facilities in Western Samoa under the auspices of the Department of

Economic Development.

INITIAL paid in capital for the project is an investment by the Government of £lO,OOO in 1966 and an additional £50,000 provided for in the 1967 development budget.

Additional capital will be raised locally and elsewhere by the sale of shares.

The first project of the new com pany will be the expansion and up grading of the Casino Hotel, which it will lease from Western Samoa Trust Estates Corporation.

Construction is expected to start this year on a minimum of 35 air conditioned rooms behind the present building.

Initial capitalisation of the hotel company will be 140,000 shares at 10/- per share.

The first four directors are Messrs.

A. Gerakas (Director of Economic Development), P. P. Heller (Financial Secretary), I. R. Lockie (Attorney- General), and Tuaopepe Tama, MP.

Tourism conference

Meanwhile, about 400 top travel industry executives have been invited to attend a Visitor Development Con ference in Apia in May.

The conference is being financed by local business and is being backed by the Western Samoan Government.

The purpose of the conference is to focus the attention of people con nected with the travel industry on “The Heart of Polynesia”.

A conference planning committee, under the chairmanship of Mr. Alec Macdonald, has already been set up.

Its members are Messrs. R. Dickinson, A. Gerakas, W. Topewell, E. F. Paul and T. Wood and Mesdames Mary Croudace, Aggie Grey and Billie Retzlaff.

Only about one in 10 of those invited is expected to be able to attend the conference, but the brochures sent out with the invita tions are expected to win publicity for Samoa’s tourist potential.