travel

The Happy Solomons

AS part of a campaign to attract more tourists to the Solomons the Honiara Chamber of Commerce has published the BSIP’s first trave: brochure in colour.

The brochure promotes the Solomons as “The Happy Isles”, a sharp con trast with such terms as ‘The Cannibal Isles” and “Savage Solomons”, which were in current use a good deal less than a century ago when humar feasts, blackbirding and murders were the order of the day.

There’s nothing savage about the Solomons today, according to the brochure.

They’re “a string of tropical islands in the sparkling Coral Sea” with “a happy friendly people” and “youngsters shyly peeping from the village school. . .”

It’s a “wonderful world to explore.’ 1 Honiara’s small size and relative isolation from major air and shipping routes in the South Pacific are pros, not cons, the brochure says, because these two factors add to the “serene enchantment of the Solomon Islands” and make a “unique and off-the beaten-track holiday.” The brochure contains valuable facts, about such things as passports, visas, vaccinations, clothing, currency, accommodation, transport and shopping.

Prom November, some 20 Ameri can tourists are scheduled to visit Guadalcanal each month as part of a three-month South Pacific tour from San Francisco to San Fran cisco, via New Zealand, Australia, Papua-New Guinea, the Solomons, Fiji and Tahiti.'

Topless fashions are disappearing, but the old way of life is still to be seen at Langa Langa Lagoon, Malaita (below).