In defence of Fiji

No wonder we hear in Fiji of tourists who are disgruntled about the poor advice given to them by Australian travel agents.

The Sydney travel agent who preferred to remain nameless, but who tendered his advice to Fiji in the February issue of PIM (p 29) made a number of state ments which are far from ac curate.

Apart from suggesting that there are hotels here which are 20-storeys high (and his clients would tell him that is nonsense), he also is ignorant of the fact that taxi meters have been compulsory for several months. Perhaps Fiji has had its share of sharp taxi operators, but then people coming from Australia, myself included, would be well accustomed to, and perhaps even expect, that parti cular type of taxi operator.

To speak of the risk of being robbed in broad daylight is a gross exaggeration. Having lived in Fiji for the last three years, my wife and I have wandered night and day through towns and coun try areas of Fiji, with far less fear than would be the case walking in many parts of Sydney.

In this context, it is worthy of comment that the crime rate in the more urbanised part of Fiji actually dropped by 28.1 per cent in January this year, compared to January, 1975.

While admitting that there is a degree of excessive drinking in Fiji, I am completely unable to confirm the travel agent’s sugges tion that Fiji is abound with “dangerous drunks”. Coming from Australia, with its own particular drink problem, this suggestion is not only exagger ated, it is highly ironical.

If the writer is aware that Fiji is spending $3O million on its “main road”, he does not men tion it. This amount is the equi valent of $4OO for every person in employment in Fiji, with the vast majority of them earning less than $1 per hour. In this small country with few natural resources, luxuries such as tar sealed highways do not come

easily or rapidly or simply to meet the desire for comfort of the 3,000 or 4,000 tourists who happen to be in Fiji at any one time, important though they may be.

With the down-turn in tourist traffic of some 15 per cent, coin ciding with the opening of a num ber of new hotels which were planned during the very recent growth rates of 20 per cent per annum, the industry certainly is facing a testing period, which, in the long run may turn out to have been a good thing. Only the better managers and the bet ter hotels will survive, only the better staff will be retained, mar keting will improve, some hotels have already cut their room rates, despite rising costs, and for those who care to look, there is avail able in the main urban areas a better range of good and cheap meals than ever before. One hotel in Suva is currently providing in attractive surroundings a four course meal, followed by a free movie, for $2.50. Good business luncheons are available for $2.

It will be some months before any resumption of growth can be expected, but few people in Fiji in any event would favour a return to regular 20 per cent per annum growth rates such as were previously experienced. If the smiles are tending to dis appear from the Fijian faces, it is due, at least in part, to the fact that the tourists have made them aware that they have to work for probably 120 hours per week if they are to achieve the same buy ing power as their more fortunate neighbours in Australia and New Zealand can earn in a normal 40 hours.

In common with the rest of the world, Fiji is changing, but its beauty remains untouched, as the many people who come back year after year still testify.

Clive Sadleir

Managing Director, Fiji Development Bank.

Suva, Fiji.