Fiji’s hoteliers seek flights to Los Angeles

Press, 28 January 1988, Page 4

Fiji’s hoteliers seek flights to Los Angeles

By JAMES SHRIMPTON NZPA Suva Fiji’s struggling resort hoteliers will push for a direct Los Angeles to Nandi service by the nation’s international carrier, Air Pacific. They believe this is the only way to tap the North American market and help revive Fiji’s tourist industry. The Fiji hotel association president, Mike Dennis, said today that the possibility of a direct service was discussed at a crisis meet-

ing of the association’s board yesterday. He said the board would ask the Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister, David Pickering, to call an industry “summit” within the next two weeks to discuss this and other proposals. With the end of the holiday season, Fiji’s tourist industry, a big dollar-earner, is facing the latest of a series of crises since the first military coup last May. Hotel occupancy rates

are expected to drop to less than 20 per cent in the next few weeks. Mr Dennis said there was great potential in the North American market, but the tourist industry was being “jacked around” by the airlines flying between Fiji and the United States west coast — Qantas and Air New Zealand. The airlines were not prepared to make longterm seating commitments to and from Fiji, and waited until they knew the numbers of passengers flying to and

from Australia and New Zealand. Air Pacific would further benefit from a North American direct service because from Fiji, passengers could travel on to other South Pacific destinations served by the airline, including Tonga, Western Samoa and Vanuatu. Mr Dennis said Qantas, which has managed Air Pacific since 1985 and which last year took a 19.57 per cent stake in the company, should help the project from its North American offices.