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Japanese Move into Pacific Island

Geoff Tansey writes from Suva
TEN green garlanded Fijian singers, five strumming guitars, serenade the tourists at Ihc Regent Hole) each evening. The singers, naked to the waist, wear sulas. the Fijian wrap-round garment. Fijians serve drinks and free hors d'oeuvres — fish pieces and pizza.
A familiar scene, with variations and different songs and singer* al any tourist centre. Tourism is the second largest industry tn the world and expected to overtake oil as No 1 by 2000
The World Tourist Organisation says that in the 40 years since mass tourism began, annual average tourist activity has risen by 7.1 per cent in arrivals and by 12.5 per cent in receipts based on current prices.
Fiji is diversifying its economy away from dependency on sugar A study of the contribution of tourism tn FIJI shows that II accounts for about 15 per rent of GDP, 25 per rent of gross export earnings and employs 12 per cent of ihc labour force.
The study, compiled by Fijian government planner Anita Natr while she was at the Development and Project Planning Centre (DPPC) al the University of Bradford In Britain, shows that the apparent foreign exchange earning can be deceptive.
Nair found that only 45 per cent of foreign exchange brought Into Fiji in 1985 by tourism was retained. The rest "leaked."
Imports needed lo mccl tourist taste* — the costs of advertising and marketing Fiji abroad and the high degree of foreign ownership — resulted In high profit and wage repatriation abroad.
Moreover, not all foreign exchange comes through official channel*. Nair estimated that between 12-16 per cent was not registered.
In FIJI and the Pacific the tourism Industry Is moving Into foreign control. The FIJI Regent, for example, lies next lo the Sheraton. Both are 300 bed hotel* in Denarau resort, near the international airport. Both belong to the Japanese company EIE International, which also own* the resort.
EIE — it stand* for Electronic and Industrial Enterprises — Is investing F8300 million al Denarau as part of it* tourism Investment In the Pacific. At 680 acres, Denarau Island I* bigger than Hawaii's Waikiki, which has 30,000 rooms.
Mass tourism is not planned
here. EIE will have four new hotels, bringing the bed total to 1650. a championship golf course, marina and shopping village, and 618 townhouses and villas In a project expected to create 5,000 jobs.
EIE manager 1n Fiji. Suva-born Andrew Thomson, says : "Wc don't want lo be Hke the Mediterranean." He praises government building policy which forbids hole! construction above the height of a coconut tree, makes two stories the limit.
Some Fijians fear the resort could become a Japanese enclave. Thomson discounts that, saying : "Wc wouldn't cater for large group travel."
At present most visitors to both hotels are independent travellers from Australia. Americans come second at the Regent and Japanese at the Sheraton, followed by New Zealanders, Europeans, and Canadians.
However, all the Island governments arc vulnerable to the vagaries of the international airline market. Airline service or routing changes can affect tourism dramatically.
Tahiti Is said to • have lost 10,000 stopover visitors a year
when one airline cancelled its three flights and another cut one flight.
This Is one reason why governments want their own airline and why EIE wants a stake In them. In FIJI EIE bought 6 per cent of Air Pacific, the government-owned carrier. It also has a JO per cent interest In Air Tahiti and 15 per cent In Air Calcdonic and bought up three large hotels in Tahiti In 1989.
The Japanese company owns resorts and hotels In Australia. New Zealand. Tahiti, New Caledonia and Hawaii and financial services and travel, transport and communications interests — all part of Its strategy to build an Integrated tourism business.
EIE began in electronics in 1948 and that remains its main business. The property development side, founded by llarounori Takahashi in 1977, now has over USS7 billion In assets.
Yet It has cash flow difficulties because of a decline In property values, high interest rates and Involvement In some project* which have fared less well.
ElE's experience raises
questions over the long-term viability of a new foreign exchange-earner that also relies so much on foreign capital and a fickle international market.
Dr Steven Curry, director of research and post-graduate programmes al the DPPC. who has a special Interest tn tourism, points out that airlines. hotel chains and tour operators can all affect a .resort's or a country’s fortunes.
Hotel chains can switch preference from owning to managing hotels under a contract. Tour operators can have a major Impact a* they have a virtual monopoly over Information.
They bring it together and package It even though individual tourists may not think they are on a package tour. Airline scats and hotel room* arc block-booked and marketed individually to independent travellers worldwide.
Cirry also says governments, especially small ones, often spend more than they think on Infrastructure and other services needed to attract tourists.
In looking at cost-benefits, It Is easier to account for the
cost of extra Import* tourism requires, but harder to take proper account of how much foreign exchange leaks out because of the way tourist facilities are owned and managed.
Complex as It may be. tourism has massive economic importance, and no government can afford to ignore its costs and benefits.
- GEMINI NEWS
Geoff Tansey is a British writer and Journalist who deals with development matters, He was EIE'S guest at Denarau.