are duty-free!
pp. 37-39 · Read in the full issue
Look out Fiji, the Cooks are duty-free!
There are some worried people in Fiji these days, the owners of the “duty free stores” who, for the past 10 years, have had almost a monopoly of the rich duty free trading which tourism has engendered in the South Pacific. There’s a competitor on the horizon —the Cook Islands which, on September 25, climbed on to the band waggon.
Under an order made by the Exe cutive Council, a new Customs tariff began to operate on September 25.
The list of duty free goods is, ap parently, almost identical with that of Fiji.
So far, however, the cloud of com petition drifting from the Cooks is no bigger than a man’s hand on Fiji’s horizon but it will grow as the Cooks’ tourist facilities grow—and they’re growing rapidly. The new in ternational airport is scheduled for opening in November. Then there’s the 80-bed Trailways Hotel at Raro tonga, which is almost ready and several more hotels are on the draw ing board with the Cooks and New Zea land governments combining to build at least two hotels.
So far there’s only one duty free store on Rarotonga, one locally owned by South Seas International Ltd, which opened in the presence of Premier Albert Henry on the day that the revised customs tariff came into operation. There’ll be more of course to act as bait for the tourist and that means, in the main, the New Zea lander, who is likely to give pre ference to the Cooks over Fiji if only because the currency is the same.
An NZ invasion of the Cooks by Kiwis who’ll be able to spend with out restriction, will skim some of the cream off Fiji’s tourist trade.
Competition will be a good thing, however, if only to check the abuses which have been creeping into Fiji’s duty free trade. The Fiji Visitors Bureau in Suva has a thick file of complaints from dissatisfied tourists, who have been taken to the cleaners by some of Fiji’s more unscrupulous traders; happily in the minority.
Already, the duty free traders are worrying over prices. The vice-presi dent of the Duty Free Merchants’
Association in Suva, Mr Dalpat Rathod doesn’t think there’s any im mediate threat to Fiji’s industry from
the Cooks as it will be some time before the Cooks can hope to become serious competitors in the tourist field—except where price is con cerned.
Said Mr Rathod: “The future of Fiji’s industry will be seriously threatened if the Cooks’ prices are well below ours.”
Other traders think the Cooks, still unsophisticated and a little off the beaten track, will drain off a consider able number of potential money spenders from Fiji. Perhaps the big gest threat will be in the changing pattern of tourism with the growth of island-hopping package tours. The Cooks, with their new airport, will come into the deal with a vengeance.
And not only the Cooks. The two Samoas and Tonga are showing signs of developing their tourist muscles with the building of more hotels and the upgrading of their air strips. It’s not unlikely that the Tongan Government will be per suaded to introduce a duty-free system. Western Samoa already has the beginnings of one. Then what?
Fiji’s tourist industry leans heavily in its advertising on its duty free facilities. When all the Islands are on the bandwaggon Fiji will have to rely once again on its natural attrac tions of which it has plenty.
Cook Islands Premier Albert Henry (at right) is on the customers' side of the counter at the opening of the Cook's first duty free store which is operated byy South Seas International Ltd. Both Mr Henry and the Minister of Customs, Mr Geoffrey Henry (second from left) were given token gifts to mark the occasion. Also in the picture are Mr O. B. Mulhane, one of the company's directors, and Mrs M.
Johnson, the manageress. Photo: Johnson's Studio.