CALENDAR FOR TOURISTS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28619, 23 June 1958, Page 14

CALENDAR FOR TOURISTS

Preparation In Christchurch

A national calendar of coming events is being prepared for regular publication and distribution in New Zealand and overseas.

The object is to provide a service for intending tourists who may wish to plan their itineraries to coincide with special fixtures.

The calendar is the idea of the New Zealand Public Relations Institute, which has appointed the Canterbury public relations officer (Mr E. G. Beckett) as coordinator for the publication.

Local and overseas transport concerns and tour-promoting organisations had long deplored the lack of any New Zealand calendar of this kind, Mr Beckett said yesterday. Some claimed that the lack had seriously impeded efforts to bring tourists to the Dominion. The cost of the publication will be borne by the New Zealand Travel and Holidays’ Association and airlines. It is intended that the calendar will be published as a loose-leaf sheet in the association’s journal, 40,000 free copies of which are distributed in North America, Britain, Europe and Australia. Details Wanted Next week, the Canterbury office will mail to more than 160 places, blank circulars to be filled in with details and dates of known coming events. The mailing list includes local bodies, sporting, religious and social organisations, chambers of commerce, the armed services, and Government departments. It is hoped that the first of the calendars will appear with the spring issue of the Travel and Holiday magazine in October.

An incident which had more than a little to do with the idea of the national calendar occurred this year when an overseas tourist agency wrote to one of New Zealand’s four main centres and asked on behalf of two intending American tourists details of attractions in the Dominion during May. The agency received the reply: “Empire Day.”