U.S. INTEREST IN N.Z. TOURIST RESORTS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27557, 14 January 1955, Page 3

U.S. INTEREST IN N.Z. TOURIST RESORTS

JOURNALISTS’ TOURS MAY BE ARRANGED

(New Zealand Press Association) . WELLINGTON, January 13. A recent visit by a journalist and cameraman from a Los Angeles newspaper and television station has resulted in such valuable publicity for New Zealand’s tourist attractions that the Minister in charge of Tourist and Health Resorts (Mr E. H. Halstead) hopes to arrange for other American newspapers, magazines and television stations to send representatives on New Zealand tours.

During December alone more than 2,500,000 Americans had read illustrated articles or seen television films on New Zealand’s tourist attractions, said Mr Halstead. This was a result of the visit last October of Messrs Del Schrader; assistant travel and motoring editor of the “Los Angeles Times,” and Allen Chandler, a movie cameraman for the television station KTTV Hollywood, also operated by the newspaper. Writing in the newspaper, Mr Schrader said: “Each year increasing numbers of Americans are heading south to New Zealand instead of east to Europe. They find a scenic, charming land, where the colourful culture of the Maori has blended with the progressive civilisation of British peoples. Good roads, railroads and accommodation, some of the best fishing in the world, and the friendliness of Zealand’s 2,000,000 citizens make it a tourist’s paradise.”