Fiji's friendly

image vanishing

Whatever has happened to the Friendly Fiji which late Fiji Govern ment public relations officer, Jack Hackett, proclaimed to all and sun dry, at every opportunity, orally and in writing? The thought of Friendly Fiji immediately conjures up pictures of smiling Fijians, always happy to oblige.

But the smiles seem to have faded away, according to the Fiji Visitors Bureau. Board member Dick Warner remarked at a recent board meeting that five years ago Fiji was tops for friendly smiling service. Now all that had gone.

The board chairman, Mr Ken Oates, head of TraveLodge in Fiji, agreed that a smile from the average tourist industry employee was now not on. Mr Paddy Doyle, board manager and formerly actively engag ed in tourism as a hotel entrepreneur, said there were now complaints about service, starting with immigration and customs officials, to taxi drivers and hotel desk employees, who apparently couldn’t care less.

On top of all that, hotels had a hard job getting rid of an employee who “turned sour” after six months. First there had to be three letters of war ning and then a trade union investiga tion.

But there may be a resumption of smiles at the end of the tunnel. A hotel training school is just about to turn out its first graduates from a three year course, and after that kind of in doctrination the image of Friendly Fiji may return.