Concept: Tourism
Details
Early tourists used the scheduled shipping services connecting the Solomon Islands to New Guinea, Australian and other South Pacific ports, and many yachts stopped there on their Pacific cruises. Burns Philp & Co. (q.v.) began to carry passengers on their trading vessels in the 1880s and established a route to the Solomon Islands in the mid-1890s. There were tourists or 'round trip people' on these ships in the 1930s. Burns Philp & Co. produced magazines intended to woo tourists: Picturesque Travels ran from 1911 until 1925 when it was replaced by the BP Magazine which continued as a quarterly until 1941. The Pacific Islands Monthly began publication in 1930, and the same publisher produced the Pacific Islands Yearbook, all of which gave advice on tourism in the Pacific. P&O and Orient Line ships occasionally sailed to Asia and called at the Solomon Islands en route. (Douglas 2004, 36-38) There were other indirect boosts to tourism, one of which was the photographs of the Solomons taken by Tasmanian Bishop Montgomery in the 1890s and by professional photographer J. W. Beattie in 1906, both of whom travelled to the Protectorate on the Anglican Melanesian Mission vessel the Southern Cross. Ten years later, Australian writer and photographer Thomas J. McMahon travelled on Burns Philp ships throughout the Solomons and published his articles widely in Australian newspapers and magazines. He was interested in 'boosting' Australian commercial interests in the Pacific Islands. (Quanchi 1994) At the same time, Martin and Osa Johnson travelled to the Pacific, Martin shooting around 7600 metres of film and taking a thousand photographs. They produced three early motion pictures, Among the
Cannibals of the South Seas (1918), Recruiting in the Solomons (1920), Headhunters of the South Seas (1922). They were followed by Edward A. Salisbury, Merian C. Cooper and Thomas Middleton who produced Black Shadows (1923), The Transformed Isle (1924), Gow the Headhunter (1928) and Gow the Killer (1931). These films (q.v.) and the many that followed all introduced the Solomons to overseas audiences. (Douglas 2004, 40; Johnson 1945)
Private yachts that visited the Solomons included the Snark owned by Jack London and his wife Charmain in 1908. They were travelling with cinematographer Martin Johnson and spent time at Malaita. (London 1912, 244-269) Visitors without their own floating accommodation had to rely on the goodwill of local planters and other residents. The only early hotel was Elkington's Hotel (q.v.) at Tulagi, which operated between 1916 and 1934. The Second World War intervened, and after the war the first Honiara hotel was the Woodford, started by Kenneth D. Hay (q.v.) in 1949, which in 1966 became today's Mendana Hotel (q.v.). Other Honiara hotels followed, such as Alvin Blum's (q.v.) Hometell on Hibiscus Avenue in 1964 (later called the Hibiscus Hotel), and Chan's Honiara Hotel in Chinatown. Gizo Hotel was built in the 1960s and in 1969 was owned by Wing Sun Company.
Once regular commercial air services began through Qantas, Trans-Australia Airways and Fiji Airways, beginning in 1947, tourists had more direct access, although there was still little accommodation available. The first cruise ship to visit the Protectorate was the 42,000-ton Oriana in June 1962, followed by the Orsova in May 1963. Before long other cruise ships began to call regularly at Honiara; in 1970 the Orcades visited and in 1972 the Canberra, the largest liner to visit as of that date, arrived with two thousand passengers. Planning on how to attract tourists continued during the 1960s, particularly tourists en route to Fiji. (NS June 1962, 15 Sept. 1962, 17 Nov. 1963, 16 Oct. 1972)
Cultural festivals (q.v.) began to be held in Honiara in the late 1960s and 1970s. A 1968 report by R. J. Scott of the Fiji Visitors Bureau recommended the establishment of a Tourist Authority, which was authorised in late 1969 and opened as the Solomon Islands Tourist Authority in 1970. The report also recommended constructing a model village in Honiara, new hotels, improvements to the Botanic Gardens, and a five-year plan to develop beaches, parks and gardens. Two of Honiara's three hotels commenced major expansion plans in 1971. (NS 30 Nov. 1968; WPHC Public Notice no. 134/69, issued 1 Nov. 1969; AR 1971, 53)
The first tour group venture was Keithie Scenic Tours to Laulasi Island in Langalanga Lagoon on Malaita, in 1969, which enabled tourists to watch shell money making and other cultural activities. (NS 30 Sept. 1969) The next was a trip to Savo Island to see the megapodes and the volcanic activity. The first resort in the Solomon Islands was opened at Tambea on Guadalcanal in August 1969, by Mr and Mrs Olle Torling along with sixty local village shareholders. Initially there was only a restaurant but twenty-five holiday cabins were planned and six were completed by the end the year. Within a year the resort was in financial difficulties because river floods were preventing regular access. In 1974 Olle Torling gave up the resort's liquor licence. (NS 31 July 1969, 15 Aug. 1969, 30 May 1971, 22 Jan. 1973, 22 Nov. 1974)
Related entries
Published resources
Books
- Johnson, Osa, Bride in the Solomons, George G. Harrap and Company, London, 1945. Details
- London, Jack, South Sea Tales, Mills & Boon, London, 1912. Details
Journals
- British Solomon Islands Protectorate (ed.), British Solomon Islands Protectorate News Sheet (NS), 1955-1975. Details
Journal Articles
- Douglas, Ngaire, 'Towards a History of Tourism in Solomon Islands', Journal of Pacific Studies, vol. 26, no. 1-3, 2004, pp. 29-49. Details
- Quanchi, Max, 'A Trip through the Islands in 1918: The Photography of T.J. McMahon', Meanjin, vol. 53, no. 4, 1994, pp. 714-722. Details
Reports
- British Solomon Islands Protectorate, British Solomon Islands Protectorate Annual Reports (AR), 1896-1973. Details
