PART 6
In 1970, Rory Scott, who was then the general manager of the Fiji Visitors Bureau, presented a paper to the Fiji Society entitled “The Development of Tourism in Fiji since 1923. This article is based on that paper.
The Suva Tourist Bureau was born on May 1, 1923, the children of a body known as the White Settlement League. First manager was John Herrick.
He set up office in the premises that formed part of the old Club Hotel.
New hotels were on the drawing board, actually under construction, and one, the Outrigger Motel in Suva, opened in 1966.
Between 1969 and 1972, architects and government departments were inundated with hotel plans.
The great building boom produced three more Travelodges in Nadi, Savusavu and Taveuni.
In Suva, there came into being the Hotel Southern Cross, Town House, Capricorn Apartment Hotel and Hotel Isa Lei.
In Nadi, the Sunflower Dominion International Fiji Gateway and Saweni Beach Hotel (near Lautoka) sprang up. Island resorts began to spring up too – Mana Island Resort, Plantation Village, Toberua and Dan Costello’s Tai Island.
Later Costello created Treasure Island Resort for a more up-market clientele, but retained the swinging informal Beachcomber Island for his famous day cruise and real beachcombers.
On the Coral Coast, Korolevu continued to grow.
The old Reef Lodge became the swish Reef Hotel (now Outrigger on the Lagoon).
A great stretch of land in Deuba, 35 miles along the coast from Suva, shot into the headlines in late 1969, when a group of overseas investors announced they were going to turn it into a showcase in the South Pacific, with luxury hotels and holiday villas, a championship golf course and vast recreation areas. Nobody believed them.
Everyone said Pacific Harbour was a pipe dream. In late 1972, Deuba’s luxury hotel was in business and called the Beachcomber Hotel.
A year later the magnificent golf course opened and within months, the elegant luxury villas started filling up with guests and residents. Pacific Harbour grew daily.
Another luxury hotel, The Naviti, opened in Korolevu in 1975, further establishing the Coral Coast as the main resort accommodation area in Fiji.
Fiji’s real take off into big league tourism opened about the same time The Fijian Hotel was preparing to open.
Another significant and far-reaching development at the time was the appointment of Rory Scott as general manager of the Fiji Visitor’s Bureau.
The FVB had been very ably run for a number of years by another veteran of Fiji’s tourist industry, Don Lane.
Rory took over from Don Lane (who joined Blue Lagoon Cruises) in 1966.
Rory Scott’s very lack of knowledge proved a distinct advantaged at the great time of charge.
He had to learn the new brand of tourism. For his right hand man in the FVB, he had the indefatigable, Peter Erbsleben.
Between them, they helped shape the industry that later became second only to sugar and now the top foreign-exchange earner and employer for Fiji.
Rory encouraged the establishment of many new tourist facilities especially activities for visitors.
He saw the birth of Dan Costello’s Beachcomber Cruise, one of Fiji Tourism’s success stories.
Two other cruises preceded Costello’s cruise venture – the world-famous Blue Lagoon Cruises and the Oolooloo reef-viewing cruise out of Suva.
Another person who encouraged progress in the industry was Iris Hunt, affectionately known as the mother of Fiji tourism.
- PART 6 to be continued next week
