Fiji Travel Service

moves into other Pacific territories

Fiji Travel Service, with UK

financing, will expand from Fiji

operations to travel agency busi ness in nearby territories, such as the Samoas, Tonga and the New Hebrides, early next year.

Fiji Travel was recently taken over for an undisclosed sum by the London-based, United Touring Com pany. UTC, with some £Stg.27 million invested in tourism facilities in Africa, was the party last year which made an unsuccessful attempt to take up an interest in Fiji’s major travel agency, Hunts.

Now, with its Fiji Travel acqui sition, UTC has an alternative vehicle for operations in the Islands. It has kept on Fiji Travel’s part-owner, Miss Terry Atkins, as manager of FTS, and has set up offices of UTC at Nadi and Suva to assist Fiji Travel in Fiji.

From Sydney, UTC has set up a telex booking system for Fiji ac commodation, and hopes are to ex tend this system to other Islands.

Meantime, it aims to consolidate itself in Fiji.

Big resorts needed

One of Britain’s major travel opera tors, UTC has closely examined Islands markets over the past 24 months. It feels the Islands lack a major resort areas such as Miami or Hawaii, where several big resorts are adjacent to each other.

When resorts are close, UTC feels, many complementary tourist facili ties are set up. Transport operators, boat charterers, nightclubs, restau rants, native villages and marinas spring up, giving visitors a variety of activities from several resorts, in stead of just those from the resort they may happen to be at.

Fiji in particular needs a Club Mediterranee resort badly, UTC feels, with cut-price package tours from Sydney. Such a Fiji resort, would, as at Moorea and Bora Bora, in French Polynesia, attract single people in the 20 to 40 years age group, looking for a lively time on an all-inclusive price basis.

UTC feels a British, Australian or American group could set up such an operation in Fiji, but they could learn much first by examining the French effort, particularly on Moorea.