Island hotel costs
p. 28 · Read in the full issue
Travel
By David North
YOU want to take a short trip to Kiribati or Tonga, for example. You know what the plane trip will cost, but what can you expect in the way of hotel rates? It is a familiar question, and three well-known organisations will help you answer it.
No, they are not travel agencies. They are the United Nations, the Interna tional Monetary Fund (IMF), and the US government. Each mamtains exten sive data systems on how much they will reimburse their employees when they travel overnight or longer. Give or take US$lO a day, these rates, on average, will usually get you a room (not a suite) at a plausible hotel, and will buy you three pretty decent meals. If you are frugal, particularly at meal time, you can get along on less than the quoted rates.
We say “on average” because setting maximum per diem rates (as they are called) is not an exact science, and, as one can see in the chart, the three entities do not always agree on what is a reasonable amount to spend in say, Guam. The United Nations thinks you can get along on SI 10 every 24 hours; the US government, which probably knows the island a little better, says it is 5230 a day.
The three entities agree that PNG is very expensive, with the maximum acceptable expenditures rates running from SI9O to $223 a day but not as expensive as Tokyo, where the rates run as high as 5424 a day. Tokelau is at the other end of the scale, with the UN setting the rate at $54 and the US at $3B.
IMF, which only travels to capitals of sovereign nations, has no published rate for Tokelau and for many other non
independent jurisdictions.
Generally, if you have a choice, travel on Uncle Sam’s nickel. In the nine island jurisdictions where a direct comparison can be made, the average US reimburse ment comes to $136, IMF sets it at $134 and the UN says it should be $132, not much of an average difference, given some of the place-by-place discrepancies.
The rate shown in the chart in many cases is the only rate for the jurisdiction listed (such as for New Caledonia, the Solomons and Western Samoa in the US table) but in many places the UN and the US set different rates for different places.
For example, the US will pay the following ?er diems in Vanuatu $l4B in Port Vila, 116 on Santos, $lll on Tanna, and $33 for other places. Similarly, the UN lays on three levels of acceptable expenditure in Kiribati $l2O on Christmas Island, “other” (presumably including Tarawa) $73, and “outer islands” $3O.
Per Diem Rates Around the Pacific (US S per night)
Another complication in some places the UN will pay the traveller more ifne or she stays in a specific hotel; the islander and the Port Moresby Travel Lodge get this special billing in the UN regulations if you are UN staff, and stay mere, you can get as much as $209. Stay somewhere else in Port Moresby, and the reimbursement is lower.
Looking over these schedules one comes away with a bland feehng about the IMF and the US government but a negative reaction to the UN on wo egalitarian treatment of 1. trave.ing etn- P 7was working on the phone with a pleasant and bright young woman in the UN; we were stumped because she could not find any reference to either the Republic of the Marshall Islands or the Federated States of Micronesia, both fullfledged members of the United Nations.
And we could not find the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas under either “C” for Commonwealth or “M” for Marianas.
It turned out that all three jurisdictions close to a decade later were still lumped under the Trust Territory of the Pacific. (Palau was there, too, but that is, for the moment, still correct.) Q ne j ast j tem Papua New Guinea pi a y S a starring role in one part of the IMF [ ravel guide IMF notes t h e first class and business class round-trip air fares from its headquarters here in Washington to every Qn earth (It a pp are ntly rarely uses coach travel.) And the absolutely most siye firs ' dass roU nd-trip ticket any w/ere in. chewojrd is .0 For. Morgby ‘ h 'f ep ‘ hs ,.f ‘ he 'g I™'" 1 ™'" (*8882)i and Western Samoa (#8283). Both first and business class fares are, of course, much more expensive than coach. IMF listed a round tnp to the Czech Republic at $5390 (first class) and $2674 (business); I just returned from a coach trip
(Washington-Prague-Washmgton) which
cost about $BOO. Q
Island Rates UN* US Govt* IM Fund American Samoa $99 $132 — Cook Islands $138 $107 — Easter Island — $148 —
F.S.M.
$154 $139 $105 Fiji $130 $126 $135 Guam $120 $230 — Kiribati $120 $116 $115 Marianas $207 $169 — Marshall Islands $123 $143 $110 Nauru $77 $74 — New Caledonia $163 $152 — Niue — $62 — Palau $141 $212 —
Png
$209 $223 $190 Solomon Is. $85 $97 $110 Tahiti $199 $185 — Tokelau $54 $38 — Tonga $98 $96 $105 Tuvalu $57 $72 — Vanuatu $139 $148 $160 Wallis & Futuna $155 $137 — Western Samoa $127 $136 $135 Pacific Rim Rates Sydney $148 $152 $175 Tokyo $424 $343 $275 New Zealand $148 $158 $180 Hawaii $160 $167 — * Rates shown for UN and USG are the highest rates allowed, usually in the Capital; sometimes UN rates are for a specific hotel, like Aggie Grey’s in Apia. International Monetary Fund rates are for capital cities of sovereign nations; IMF has no transactions with other entities.