PACIFIC TRAVEL ASSOCIATION

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27563, 21 January 1955, Page 12

PACIFIC TRAVEL ASSOCIATION

ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN NEW ZEALAND

EXECUTIVES TO MEET .AT CHATEAU

Almost every Pacific country will be represented at the annual conference of the Pacific area Travel Association to be held at the Chateau next month. On February 8 delegates and observers will be welcomed by the Minister in charge of Tourist and Health resorts (Mr E. H. Halstead). About 60 Government representatives and top executives from airlines, shipping companies, travel agencies, and the hotel industry will attend. Countries represented will include the United States, Canada, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, and Australia. “The basic aim of the association is to promote travel to and within the countries of the Pacific area, and the fact that the conference is being held in New Zealand is therefore of great benefit to this Dominion.” said Mr Halstead. “The conference will discuss proposals to simplify entry permits, visas and customs formalities and other aids to easier and more comfortable Pacific travel. Of great importance will be the talks on improving publicity, and the conference will consider ways of making the attractions of the area better known in the United States and Canada, and of stimulating visitors from the dollar countries into the Pacific. “While these leading travel executives are in New Zealand, the Tourist and Publicity Department will take the opportunity of showing them some ofthe country’s tourist attractions. Visits to Waitomo Caves and the thermal area at Wairaker have been arranged, tourist films of New Zealand will be shown to delegates during the evenings. and a Maori concert is being organised. It is hoped that a number of delegates will undertake post-con-ference tours of other parts of New Zealand, and a special conducted tour to Milford Sound, Queenstown, and the Southern Lakes is being arranged,” he said. Leading figures in the travel industry who would be present, said Mr Halstead, would include Mr T. L. Eliot, vice-president of American President Lines and also vice-president of the association. Mr C. A. Kelley, M.L.A.. New South Wales Minister of Tourist Activities. Colonel Clarence M. Young vice-president of Pan American World Airways, Messrs G. W. G. McConachie president of Canadian Pacific Airlines George Hansen, vice-president of the Matson Steam Shin Company. W. O. Cogswell, executive director o' Hawaii Visitors’ Bureau. Robert Howlett, of the Fiji Visitors’ Bureau. Modesto Farolan. president of the Philippine Tourist and Travel Association, M. Kurita, of the Japan Travel Bureau, and I. Inumaru, president of the Japan Hotel Association. The conference will be opened by the association’s president, Mr R. W. Marshall, general manager of the New Zealand Tourist and Publicity Department.