Tuvalu

SEEMS to have as many obstacles to tourism as any desti nation could possibly have: a pop ulation of 8000, living on nine small islands scattered over more than a million square kilometres. Tuvalu is isolated; the capital island, Funafuti, is more than 1000 kilometres from Suva and about 4000 kil ometres from Sydney or Auckland. There’s one airstrip, for small capacity planes.

Yet despite its disadvantages, Tuvalu has decided to encourage tourism. As the country’s only foreign exchange earner is copra, the government sees tourism as a way of providing jobs and improving the economy.

Tuvalu’s Ministry of Commerce and Natural Resources is co-operating with the Tourism Council of the South Pacific to

assess how tourism should develop to pre serve the country’s culture. A late 1987 TCSP study included designs for a new hotel in Funafuti to replace Tuvalu’s only hotel, the government-owned Vaiaku Laki Hotel, which the project team decided could not be suitably renovated.

A seaside location was chosen that ne cessitated a sea wall to protect the building from westerly winds and a raised platform for defence against flooding during heavy rains. Amenities such as a restaurant, bar and function rooms for parties and dances will be provided, as well as 16 guest rooms.

Tuvaluan craftsmen produce beautiful crafts and a selection will be displayed in the hotel lobby as well as at the Women’s Handicraft Centre. The TCSP has sug gested that tours and excursions, such as boat trips to uninhabited islets around Fanufuti Lagoon, be provided.

Carriers: Fiji Air, Air Tungaru (Kiribati) and Airlines of Marshall Islands.

Accommodation: Seven rooms there will be 16 rooms when Funafuti Hotel is rebuilt.

Attractions: A totally uncommercialised, untouched Pacific island surrounded by uninhabited islets and atolls.