cargo ships

Trade Winds

Hyatt moves in

on Bora Bora

The giant US Hyatt hotel chain, which controls 130 hotels worldwide, has embarked as a 50 per cent partner on a hotel project on French Polynesia’s Bora Bora Island worth an estimated SAI9 million.

Partners in the venture are Middle East interests represented by Mr Ghaith Pharaon who is being advised in negotiations by young US hotel tycoon, Mark Cohn. Mr Pharaon already holds a substantial interest in Tahiti’s

Beachcomber (Travelodge)

Hotel.

The Bora Bora project in volves the building of 154 bun galow-type rooms, 122 of them on the mountainside and eight groups of four on the lagoon.

There will also be two funicular railways, restaurant with panoramic view, swimming pool and tennis court. An artificial motu (islet) will be established for the enjoyment of tourists.

Fly River gets

cargo ships

Two cargo ships designed for use in the river systems and along the coasts of Papua New Guinea are going into service for the Fly River Provincial Government based on the island of Daru in PNG. Ocean Shipyards of Perth, Western Australia, designed and built the two 12-tonne craft, MV Bineturi and MV Pahoturi.

The ships were launched on September 24 in Western Aust ralia by Mrs Susan Burke, wife of the State Premier. The Fly River Province Premier, Mr Tatie Olewale, attended the cere mony. The ships have since been shipped to PNG to go into ser vice. They are of welded steel and 9.9 metres long.

Mr Rob Williams, manager of Ocean Shipyards, said the ships were specially designed for small crews and easy handling. They will be used for operating general cargo supply lines to isolated coastal and river village communities.

The ships are diesel-powered with a range of just under 1300 km. They are expected to have a working life of nearly 20 years.

They cost $70,000 each.

Qantas’ 14,000

Tahiti target

Ten thousand passengers flew with Qantas Sydney-Tahiti in the 12 months July 1982-July 1983.

Target for the year 1984 has been upped to 14,000, and, according to recent statements by the com pany’s director of marketing, Mr M. Ward, the Australian flag carrier is confident of meeting it.

Speaking at a press conference in Papeete, Tahiti, Mr Ward em phasised that main areas of con centration in the Pacific market ing strategy of Qantas were the American and Japanese markets, with three flights a week on the Tokyo-Sydney and Los Angeles-

Sydney routes.

The Tahiti and Noumea links were not a great interest in them selves, said Mr Ward, because of the low fares offered by com petitors for these flights. But in terms of enhancing the attrac tiveness of the company’s Tokyo and Los Angeles flights for travellers wishing to visit these intermediate destinations they had considerable value.

Handing over the ships: Rob Williams, Tatie Olewale, and Fly River Province official Gedi Dabu.