TOURIST TRAFFIC

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 198, 22 August 1942, Page 6

TOURIST TRAFFIC

EFFECT OF WAR

MORE INTERNAL BUSINESS

While the extension of the war to the Pacific had the immediate effect of cutting off the promising flAw of tourist traffic which hadbeen setting in from India, the Malay States and the Dutch East Indies, and within New Zealand itself the Tourist Department's bureau and agency offices continue to record a large amount of internal travel business which has helped in some measure to offset the cessation of overseas traffic.

Business done internally by the Tourist Department is well up to, and, in several cases, exceeds that recorded during the previous year, states the annual report of the Department. This, adds the report, ii no , doub t mainly accounted for by the fact that New Zealanders are largely confined to travel within the Dominion in lieu of proceeding over-

Overseas offices of the Department have turned their attention to the urgent problems of supply in connection with the war. This applies with equal force to the New Zealand l rade and Tourist Commissioners in tMe I nited States, Canada and Australia. where their efforts are proving of great value to this Dominion, states the report. All matters in connection with overseas publicity, with the exception of those bearingon the Dominion's war effort, have had to t>e drastically curtailed. The major operations of the Department's film and advertising studios have also been confined to the production of wat-propaganda films, showing something of what is being actually accomplished by the Dominion in this field.

The revenue collected last year , vari ous activities contoiood the Department amounted to iys,Bt(.) as compared with £109 940 for the previous year. Expenditure irom the Consolidated Fund amounted to £141,083 last year as compared with £161,734, which included expenditure on overseas publicity, for the previous year Expenditure from the Public Works rund last year amounted to £12.207 as against £21,575 for the previous Tnn'riatX? c sales at Government thl^nii^o reaux totalled £527,270 for p-9q Ifi r Period, as compared with period tlle previous yearly