ARCHIVE GPH 2018
The Grand Pacific Hotel is a monument or a relic depending on your POV, of a bygone era, a testament to colonial longevity sure, but as much an icon of Fiji as the Opera House is to Sydney.

 

The GPH was built by The Union Steamship company in 1914 to cater to their elite passengers, the staterooms were intended to make them feel like they had not left their cabins of their luxurious ocean steamers. The passengers didn’t actually want to mingle with the ‘natives’, they just wanted to step on the land. 

 

The GPH has had its share of downtime, going through periods of neglect during the years of political conflict and disregard for history, used as military barracks as ‘squatter deterrent’, degraded by cyclones and disinterest.

Luckily for the Pacific, the GPH opened its doors again in 2014, co-owned by a consortium of superannuation funds from Fiji, NZ and another Pacific powerhouse, PNG. It has now been restored (to the modern equivalent of its golden era glory) and THE place to gossip and be gossiped about in Suva. 

 

ISSUE 23’s editorial was photographed at the GPH, when it was the host venue of the Bottega Gold Fijian Fashion Festival 2018

Story about THE STYLANDER’S TIME AND HISTORY IN SUVA IN 2022 and a GPH review in upcoming TS issues, in TRAVELLISM.

 

According to their site Grand Pacific Hotel is now owned by the Fiji National Provident Fund. “FNPF-owned IHG Fiji Hotels portfolio include InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort & Spa, Grand Pacific Hotel and Holiday Inn Suva.”