Oscar awards Fiji a face-lift

Press, 28 June 1983, Page 24

Oscar awards Fiji a face-lift

Fiji’s tourism industry is bouncing back with a vengeance after the severe battering it received from Cyclone Oscar during the early hours of March 1. Today little evidence remains of the chaos wrought on to some of the major hotels in the Nandi area and on the islands off the north-west coast. About 16 per cent of the 4300 hotel rooms were put out of action. The worst hit, the Fiji Mocambo and the Regent, will be back in full swing within the next couple of months. Contractors and builders have had a busy time over the last 16 weeks repairing and refurbishing many of the affected properties. Indeed, it is now apparent that Oscar’s ill wind blew a new lease of life to some hotels which were overdue for a face-lift. Visitors to Fiji will find that the standard of accommodation has never been better. Publicity that followed in the wake of Oscar dealt tourism industry a more bitter blow than the cyclone itself. Prospective travellers gained the distinct impression that Fiji was a disaster area. In fact, only one hotel, the Regent, was forced to close its doors. When they reopen in September more than SBM will have been spent on repairs and refurbishing. The Fiji Mocambo, which has had only a limited number of rooms available since March, will be fully restored by early August. All island resorts are now operational, although some like Plantation and Castaway islands, have only some of their bures available. One popular watering-hole for New Zealanders, Paradise Point resort on the Coral Coast, has been closed, but not by Oscar — it is on the market awaiting a new owner.) All hotel managers interviewed praised the excellent behaviour and co-operation of guests on that fateful night. People remained calm despite the ferocity of the storm and many pitched in next day to help with the massive task of cleaning up.

Don Collingwood, formerly of Christchurch, who is manager of the Castaway Island resort, will never forget the night the cyclone hit. He spent six hours sheltering with his wife and two children in a wardrobe while their house literally disintegrated around them. “When we ventured out in the morning the house was gone,” he recalled. Mr Collingwood said that Castaway and Plantation islands took the brunt of the cyclone. At Castaway a 15 metre boat was wrenched from its moorings and flung on to a reef a kilometre away. Mr Collingwood also recalls the true story of a yachtsman who believed his craft had suffered a similar fate. When the winds died down he fired a distress flare in the dark. It hit the ceiling of the bar on Plantation Island where he and his yacht had been hurled by the storm. The Minister for Tourism and Foreign Affairs (Mr Mosese Qionibaravi, best sums up the Cyclone Oscar situation: “In no way do I want to create the impression that it did not cause major damage in its path, leaving many of our people homeless and many of our crops in destruction. “But I also feel that it is vital that all in Fiji’s tourism industry and all our friends overseas who support our industry have a clear picture of exactly what the situation is today. We have suffered cyclones before and we have the resiliency to quickly reestablish ourselves.” As a “thank you” to New Zealanders for help given to Fiji after Hurricane Oscar, some Fijian tourist companies are cancelling the exchange difference between the New Zealand and Fiji dollar on some of their Fiji holidays and accommodation. This means New Zealanders will pay only one New Zealand dollar for one Fiji dollar — a saving of nearly 50 per cent on the current exchange rate of SNZI.S2 to SFI.