PAPE’ETE (Oceania Flash) — French Polynesia’s President Gaston Flosse says he believed the French Pacific territory’s economy was “doing well” seven months after the Sept. 11 attacks and its global repercussions.
Flosse told the Territorial Assembly in spite of the global recession the attacks had entailed, especially in transport and tourism sectors, investors seemed to remain confident: four resorts were currently under construction for a total investment value of some 13.3 billion French Pacific francs, or close to $100 million.
This would bring a further 384 rooms to the current capacity and comes in addition to upgrading and renovation works on existing resorts which would bring a further 572 rooms to French Polynesia’s hotel capacity “by the end of 2002.”
By 2004, the total investment value was to reach 70 billion CFP, Flosse said, augmenting the French territory’s hotel capacity by 1,420 rooms and creating an expected 3,000 jobs.
Since last year, French Polynesia has suffered a series of blows to its crucial tourism industry as a result of the Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. soil, two luxury liners which both belonged to Florida-based Renaissance Cruises stopped operating in French Polynesia.
They were both seized as a “conservatory measure” and local authorities are now engaging talks with P&O Cruises in view of a possible take-over.
Since last year also, French airline AOM, now renamed AirLib, narrowly escaped a liquidation process and finally announced last month that it would stop flying to French Polynesia from Paris.
The French territory’s young flag carrier Air Tahiti Nui, which was created end of 1998, after months of hard negotiations, finally obtained last month the rights to land in Paris, thus securing a direct link with one of its most crucial tourism markets: metropolitan France.
