Loved to death?

A Sun-Herald report says that while Bora Bora is adored as an island paradise, its ecological future is uncertain, with Tahiti usually synonymous with paradise but when National Geographic reviewed 115 of the world’s most famous travel destinations, the write-up it gave French Polynesia was guarded.

“Tourism has had a big impact on the islands and local culture due to large resorts, but it is still a beautiful place to go,” said one expert on the panel.

The sustainability report card – based on cultural, environmental and aesthetic criteria – awarded 53 out of 100 to the islands and ranked them in the lowest category.

Only a handful of destinations were worse – notably Venice, Phuket and Spain’s Costa del Sol.

Overdevelopment and tourism mismanagement on the islands had detracted from the region’s natural beauty, the report said, forcing tourists to explore more outlying areas.

Among those islands most at risk from tourist overcrowding is Bora Bora, the tiny piece of paradise that lies north-west of Tahiti in the Society Islands group. Its airstrip, built by allied forces during World War II, was the region’s only airport until the 1960s.

But 30 years ago, when Hotel Bora Bora built the first overwater bungalows, it became one of the world’s most prized luxury destinations.

It still is. Charlize Theron and Sharon Stone are long-time fans of the remote getaway. When Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban chose Bora Bora for their honeymoon, the island reclaimed its title as the world’s top spot for romantics.

Bora Bora is most certainly romantic. But remote? Not for much longer. There are now 23 nonstop flights a week from the US to Tahiti and 16 hotel resorts on Bora Bora alone.

Air Tahiti Nui recently began a nonstop 12-hour flight from Kennedy Airport in New York to the capital, Papeete, just 40 minutes away from Bora Bora. Air New Zealand has started a seven hour red-eye trip from Los Angeles to Papeete.

The St Regis Resort, which opened last year, sprawls across 18 hectares on the edge of the lagoon. It has 100 villas and a spa that sits on its own islet. Also new is the Intercontinental Resort and Thalasso Spa, which has become one of the world’s most exclusive resorts since opening last May.

French-speaking tourism sustainability expert Professor Brian King has watched Bora Bora with interest. King is a member of the International Centre of Excellence in Tourism and Hospitality Education, and head of tourism at Victoria University. His work has taken him across Asia and the South Pacific, consulting on regional planning and hotel investment. He says French Polynesia has gained in popularity in the post-September 11 tourism industry, which has led to more investment by hotel groups.

“In some ways Bora Bora is being loved to death,” he says. “But the upside is, when you get investment those investors bring in state-of-the-art techniques.”

King is cautiously optimistic that resorts have enough self-interest to do the right thing.

“The resort sector generally is very concerned about the impact,” he says. “Because its image is about natural beauty and exoticism, even very slight impacts on the environment are very visual.”

“I’d called it enlightened self-interest”. “They really don’t want to stuff it up.”

Among those hotels introducing best-practice sustainability systems is the InterContinental. Its one-of-a-kind eco-friendly air-conditioning system is a major part of its sales pitch. The system pipes ice-cold deep sea water through a titanium heat exchanger that transfers the cold water into the freshwater circuit that powers the hotel’s air-con. The system saves 90 per cent of the hotel’s electricity consumption, which translates to a saving of 2.5 million litres of fuel oil per year.

Over at Le Meridien hotel, an innovative turtle rescue program combines top-end tourism with serious ecological work. Turtles are endangered in French Polynesia but because they remain an important tourist drawcard, hotels have taken it upon themselves to save them.

Also leading the way have been some of the island’s administrators. Mayor Gaston Tong Sang has made Bora Bora a pilot site for sustainable development, introducing several desalination plants to convert seawater into drinking water and installing a waste-water network that links homes and hotels to two water purification plants.

It is this kind of thing that has led to Bora Bora being singled out since 2000 for Europe’s prestigious Pavillon Bleu award, which recognises ecological sustainability.

Nonetheless, overcrowding remains problematic. Nearly all of the international resorts are built on the sandy islets that ring the lagoon and there is no longer much space for new development.

Some resorts, such as Orient Express’s five-star Bora Bora Lagoon Resort & Spa, have begun boasting that they have no resort neighbours, implying that all the other resorts do – a sure sign that things are tight.

All this has experts warning that as tourists move towards the outer islands, developers must respond responsibly.

King would like to see boutique hotels revitalise the region while remaining sensitive to the people who call it home.

“The outer islands are extremely fragile and the cultural side even more so,” he says. “Any new development must be sensitive to that.”

Report by The Mole