Dominion Publicity

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21087, 12 February 1934, Page 8

Dominion Publicity

In interviews printed in " The " Press" towards the end of the week two visitors to the Dominion j had something to say about the want of attractive tourist publicity. Mr Norman Bell, of Los Angeles, suggested that New Zealand must be concentrating on Australia and England, because there was a " lamentable lack of information " in the United States. An American shipping line, he said, did the only advertising in California. Dr. A. E. Porter, of Reigate, however, had observed no concentrated effort in England. It seemed to him that much more could be done, or that more effective methods could be used; and if it is true, as he said, that " a large section of the travel- " ling population of England" has heard nothing of New Zealand's mountains and lakes and nothing of the opportunities it offers to sportsmen, then it is impossible not to ask why this should be. The permanent head of the Tourist and Publicity Department said in a recent statement to "The Press" that the main object of present policy was to attract tourists from Australia. Why it should be is not very clear; but, granted that it is necessary, just now, to work in a limited way, in the nearest field, it remains to be asked whether the department can have worked the wider field very well in all the years before this. The evidence of Mr Bell and Dr. Porter points to the answer, No. So does the evidence of many other travellers. So. for that matter, does the series of pamphlets and booklets to • which we have recently referred. It is not 100 soon to suggest—it is. in

some ways, unfortunately, too late to suggest—that the whole problem of the Dominion's tourist publicity needs to be studied again; for it has plainly not been solved at all.