TOURIST TRAFFIC

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21866, 20 August 1936, Page 8

TOURIST TRAFFIC

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —That the bulk of overseas tourists to New Zealand do not wish to go further ashore than ports. of call and immediate surroundings is refuted by Mr John S. Dence, of Sydney, in his letter appearing in your issue of August 14, when he states that Orient and P. and O. boats’ cruises are not tours of New Zealand, and that a call at Lyttelton and Milford Sound is not a tour of the South Island. This I heartily endorse, as I do the remainder of his letter. We greatly desire and are in need oi the benefit of the Australian tourist traffic to the South Island. The intention of the Union Steam Ship Company, however, appears to be to frame their vessels’ itineraries as cruises and not as voyages, and to retain. the passengers oh board the ship for the greatest time, at the; greatest cost. If the proposed cruise of the Maunganui is m the nature of . an experiment, as I believe to be the case, we have a definite lead here in your correspondent’s letter of the Australian viewpoint, and we cannot afford to ignore altogether the user-demand. But the internal tourist traffic of New Zealand could be made a factor in support of a ship’s South Island itinerary, by North Island tourists embarking at Wellington alter Australian tourists had disembarked at Nelson. I suggest the following itinerary: Sydney to Nelson, thence Wellington via Marlborough Sounds; refuel and reprovision at Wellington; thence Marlborough Sounds, Milford and Southern Sounds, Stewart Island, and Bluff, where tourists from the North Island would disembark and the Australian tourists re-embark. The proportion of the inclusive cost while on shipboard could then be worked out on the following approximations:—(a) North Island tourists; Five days on ship, (b) Australian tourists: (1) Four days on ship and arrive in South Island; or (2) five days on ship and arrive in North Island; or (3) seven days on ship and 11 days in South Island; or (4) 17 days on ships.—Yours, etc., T _ ASHTON WHITING. Nelson, August 17, 1936.