Tahiti casino would not help tourism, says observer

Transcript

A journalist in Tahiti says the building of a proposed new casino will do nothing to improve French Polynesia's tourism woes.

The proposed US$3billion resort and a casino is a key plank in the government's plan to create jobs and revive tourism.

The editor of Tahiti Pacifique magazine, Alex Du Prel, says the project is an aspirational pipe dream and is strongly opposed by the former president Oscar Temaru.

ALEX DU PREL: Well he isn't happy about anything that [the President of French Polynesia] Mr Flosse does. Both of these very old gentlemen, one is 83 the other one is 78, they hate each other. So, whatever one does the other will fight.

CHRISTOPHER GILBERT: So are you questioning whether Oscar Temaru's opposition to this resort is genuine?

AP: Well he's not opposed to the resort, he's opposed that there's a casino. The problem is it's a major economic problem, very simple to explain. Like, New Caledonia has its nickel mines, French Polynesia used to have the nuclear tests. It was the economy of French Polynesia. That is over. Our economy has been collapsing regularly for the past 8 or 10 years. So we have to create a new economy and the only economy you can have on an island that really will create modern style revenue is tourism. And our tourism has been declining and declining. So they're trying to create a Waikiki, a huge project that will attract condominiums, that means people will buy apartments and villas to try and create and boost employment.

CG: It does seem to be a 'two birds with one stone' kind of approach, with trying to raise employment and trying to get tourists staying for longer. But if we look at the issues that are driving down tourism numbers, they include language, culture, cost and the value of the currency, infrastructure. Do you think that a casino will improve the numbers of tourists that are coming and staying in Tahiti?

AP: No. Sincerely I don't believe it. I think this is one big plan which doesn't cost much right now. So right now it's still a pipe dream and if they can find enough people who will believe in doing that here. We have major problems. Number one is transportation costs which are very expensive. Because of monopolies it's more expensive to fly from the United States to Tahiti than from the United States to Fiji. Second problem, like you say, is that we're tied to the euro which is very high right now. The third problem is that since the nuclear tests started the local people have adopted a Western style way of living, and also a Western style way of thinking. Which means that they've been Europeanised.

CG: Right so it's an aspirational thing?

AP: I wouldn't qualify it as pure propaganda but it is definitely a political move to announce all this. It is to project an image to say 'we the government, we do things, we move ahead' and so on.