Unspoiled"

"Let's Keep The

Solomons

From a Honiara correspondent Do the Solomon Islanders r ant to see a big tourist industry ere? If you could get some ling you could call a genuine msensus of opinion on the ibject you would probably find ley are not enthusiastic.

Those few who have travelled and how other islands make money im tourism feel that the Solomons ould share in the boom—but they n’t want to be involved with Lirist-bait in the form of leaflets owing girls in grass mini-skirts.

Plea for legislation

The desire to see the Solomons re un as they are culminated recently questions in the Legislative tuncil. A council member said: et all the islands of the Pacific ml> and let us keep the Solomons spoilt”. And a plea for some kind legislation to ensure this was put the House.

But things aren’t that easy.

Lhe Financial Secretary pointed t that the Islanders could not at same time keep their islands un ified and make a lot of money im tourists. He said, in fact, that

the islanders couldn’t have their cake and eat it. Thus it was the same old problem heard everywhere in the South Pacific, although not heard now in those areas which are finally enjoying the boom.

As a tourist incentive, the BSIP Government intends this year to in crease the staff of the Information Department to deal with inquiries about tourism from overseas, and to act as a co-ordinating influence in Honiara.

If the Solomons are to make the grade as far as tourism is con cerned, more hotels and an inter national airport will have to be built.

The additions to Honiara’s Hotel Mendana are now stretched to the limit on ordinary plane night. But on busy nights tourists don’t want to share rooms, with strangers.

Of course the islands need more than hotels and an international air-

port to attract tourists. They need good publicity. To this end the Chamber of Commerce has engaged a firm of consultants in Australia to produce pamphlets for tourists. In keeping with the conservative nature of the Solomon Islanders, the pamphlets will be discreet. They will consist of maps and views: semi-clad native girls will have no place on the pamphlets.

The Solomons have one big dis advantage when it comes to tourism: they are not on a trunk air route.

An island such as Fiji, which is on an international route, has ready made tourism.

Holiday cottage

But certainly things are beginning to move in Solomons tourism. A recent example of the kind of ap proach not thought of until recently is that of Mrs. Myfanwy Humphreys and Mr. lan Gower, who have bought from Lever Bros, a 40-acre island 65 miles from Honiara. Mrs.

Humphreys, a South African, works in Honiara for E. V. Lawson Ltd.

Her husband works for the Geologi cal Survey Department. Mr. Gower is a Guadalcanal plantation owner.

The island, called Tavanipupu, is completely unspoiled. It can be reached by Megapode Airways, by Government ship or island trader.

Already one holiday cottage has been built. Equipped with all mod cons, it houses four adults and can be rented weekly for $4O.

If the favourable reaction of the vacationers of Honiara—a number of them have already spent holidays at Mrs. Humphrey’s cottage—is any thing to go by, it is almost certain that many more holiday cottages will be popping up on Tavanipupu. For the Solomons, this is new.

The holiday cottage at Tavanipupu, a 40acre island 65 miles from Honiara.

i The unspoiled Solomons—huts of the coastal Malaita people on a man-made island of coral rock at Langa Langa Lagoon, Malaita. Photo: Rob Wright.