The Waving Palms Of Fiji

From Vijendra Kumar in Lautoka

In many tourist hotels in Fiji, if you ordered a glass of beer at 25c you would learn soon that you would be paying more than what the hotel officially charges. The serving waiter would expect a tip of anything up wards of 10c. If you make the mis take of offering anything less—or worse still, nothing at all—you may be insulted and denied service. Word would quickly get around among other attendants that you are a

tightwad.

Tipping, most hotels advise their guests, is not compulsory. But he would be a sorry guest who accepted this advice. Almost everyone in a hotel—except of course management staff—expects a tip for service. And, often their service is nothing to rave

about, either.

A senior hotel staff member of a large hotel on Sigatoka’s Coral Coast says that sometimes employees earn as much if not more than their

weekly wage in tips. The minimum weekly wage is 524, a paltry sum by any standards. And probably it’s the wage structure which has given rise to excessive tipping.

“The tourists most liberal with their money are Americans and Aust ralians,” the hotel man said. “But we’re getting only a small number of Americans these days because of their domestic problems. So the Aussies are the favourites now. Kiwis have a bad name generally with our service staff. They are tight with their money and question and query every bill.”

He said that normally tourists pay 10 per cent of their total bill for a meal or other services as tips. But, according to the hotel man, some visitors have paid up to $25 to their favourite hotel maid, barman or waiter.

“Barmen at cocktail counters prob ably earn more than their wages in tips. Drunken visitors tend to get very free with their money,” he said.

Tipping is so widespread that local people find it hard to get any service in the big hotels. Waiters and barmen tend to ignore them and when angry locals insist on their rights to be ser ved, they get only grudging service.

Besides hotels, taxi drivers are no torious for expecting—and even de manding—tips. Hapless tourists often pay far more than the normal fare for a taxi run and then, on top of it all, are coerced into paying a tip which may run from 50c to anything like $5. However, not all taxi drivers are so greedy. Occasionally, one hears of honest drivers who have returned large amounts of cash which visitors have accidentally left in their cabs.

One section of the tourist industry still not affected by the waving palm is the private restaurant. Most of these are run by Chinese merchants whose honesty and fair dealing are tradit ional. They don’t expect their staff to ask for tips.