PACIFIC TRAVEL ASSOCIATION

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26986, 11 March 1953, Page 6

PACIFIC TRAVEL ASSOCIATION

CONFERENCE TODAY AT HONOLULU

CONCESSION AIR FARES TO BE DISCUSSED

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, March 10. Concession air fares—3o per ce£tless than current ones—will soon be available for overseas tourists flying to New Zealand. Airlines will balance me loss on individual fares by increasing seating accommodation ana _ cutting down on luxury “frills.” This is the prediction of Mr R. W. Marshall, general manager of the Government Tourist Bureau. The new rates, which will operate .within a year, will be one of several topics discussed by the Pacific Interim Travel Association, which will meet at Honolulu tomorrow. Formed last year, the association comprises 60 delegates —Government, transport, advertising, and tourist agency—from Pacific countries who pool ideas and resources in the common interest of “selling” the Pacific area to tourists. .The chief consideration of the conference would be the formation of a permanent body with headquarters at Honolulu to function on a long-term basis, said Mr Marshall. The present association was a temporary arrangement. High air fares to New Zealand, compared with those to other countries, were a major barrier to tourist trade in New Zealand, he said. Although American tourists got high dollar exchange in New Zealand they preferred to go to England, where a 500-dollar saving on fares gave them extra spending money. Sir Leonard Isitt, chairman of directors of Tasman Empire Airways and the National Airways Corporation, left with Mr Marshall today to attend the conference.