planes to Vanua Levu

from w
Here's a recent letter from Savusavu complaining about the problem with transport to Vanua levu - planes reliability and so on. Good point that so much money is being used for purchasing new planes for international trips, but what about the local traffic? And the promise of tourists going North! Here is the Letter to the Editor of the Fiji Times.

Look North

I WRITE with great concern for tourism up North, especially Savusavu and Taveuni.

The Look North Policy seems to have taken a 180 degree turn to the South, specifically with regards to tourism.

The situation is so alarming that wholesalers are keeping away from booking tourists up our end.

Tourism here is slowly being crippled and if this trend continues I will not be surprised to see several tourism operators closing their doors. All simply because we do not have a reliable domestic airline service. The current domestic airline service has got to be addressed immediately with instant tangible solutions.

What I find strange is that our national airline has gone about spending $US600million to buy three A330-200 Airbus aircraft.

I'm no expert nor am I an airline executive but doesn't it make sense to first sort out our domestic airline services before even thinking international?

There is something amiss here. I know of a few good reasons but that's for another letter.

By the way this purchase was helped through funding from FNPF to the amount of $200million.

Now why couldn't they simply use $20m of our money to buy five brand new Twin-Otters to keep the domestic service rolling?

What is disturbing most of all is the disregard of the amount of effort and money spent by tourism operators of the north and Tourism Fiji to promote the Northern Tourism Brand. Our promising north is now tarnished by it.

The state of our domestic airline service is at its lowest ever and it seems to be deteriorating by the day.

With all due respect Mr Prime Minister Sir, we have a situation up north that needs your urgent attention. SOS, please, Look North consistently for we have a lot to offer that'll make Fiji prosper.

SIMON J HAZELMAN
Savusavu