TOURIST PUBLICITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 183, 4 August 1936, Page 10

TOURIST PUBLICITY.

S. ISLAND TRAVEL LEAGUE,

MINISTER'S INTEREST.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, Monday.

Gratification at the formation of the South Island Travel League was ex_ pressed by the Minister in charge of the Tourist Department, the Hon. F Langstone, on arrival at Lvttelton today. He mentioned that such an organisation could succeed only if the Tourist Department were its mainspring and said that private enterprise couh' not conduct tourist publicity as efficiently aj? the Government. The Minister said that the Tourist Department was at all times -.villinor to assist in any direction to facilitate tourist traffic, which meant the development of internal and external tradp. Tourist expenditure in New Zealand exceeded the revenue by about £30,000 a year. It was recognised that tindepartment must be primarily a spending department, but the advent of overseas tourists to New Zealand was a sood way of establishing invisible exports and creating credits abroad, as well as of developing trad.e in the Dominion.

"My problem is to convince the Minister of Finance that our £SO,OOO deficit is made up on the revenue side, and that the Tourist Department is noi run at a loss," Mr. Langstone said. He mentioned that as well as the money spent by the Tourist Department, a good deal was expended by travel clubs and others interested in developing tourist traffic. If by co-ordination, such as would result through the formation of the South Island Travel League, it could be possible to estimate the amount spent, and to spend it to greater advantage with the Tourist Department afi the mainspring of the movement, much good would be accomplished.