Travel Agent Reiterates Objection To Christchurch

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28897, 18 May 1959, Page 12

Travel Agent Reiterates Objection To Christchurch

(Aem tea tun a Press Association)

DUNEDIN, May 17. The Minister in charge of Tourist and Health Resorts (Mr Mathison) “rode rough-shod” over a previous decision to hold the Pacific Area Travel Association conference at Wairakei, said Mr I. A. Mitchell, a Dunedin travel agent, today. He was replying to statements in Christchurch by the president of the South Island Publicity Association (Mr L. Christie) who said Mr Mitchell had been the sole objector to the South Island venue when the proposal was made.

On Friday. Mr Mitchell said a grave disservice was being done to New Zealand in selecting Christchurch as the venue of the conference next year. Mr Mitchell today said that a meeting in Wellington early in 1958 called specially for the purpose and under the chairmanship of the general manager of the Government Tourist Department (Mr R. W. Marshall) New Zealand members of P.A.T.A. debated the venue of the 1960 conference. “This meeting, which comprised senior executives of all branches of travel, transport and the licensed trade, passed a resolution that Wairakei be the venue for the 1960 conference,” he said. "Tourist Impact” “In arriving at this decision, the meeting, realising that only a small percentage of delegates take pre-conference and postconference tours, was guided to this decision by the need to make a lasting and impressive tourist impact on our visitors,” said Mr Mitchell. The ideal places would have been Queenstown, Franz Josef glacier. Mount Cook or Milford Sound, but mainly for capacity reasons these had to be eliminated. “The unsuitability of any New Zealand city was too obvious to experienced travel men to warrant any really serious consideration,” Mr Mitchell continued. “Nevertheless, they were considered and rejected with every good reason. “Riding rough-shod over the decision made by P.A.T.A. members, the Minister demanded that the question be reopened at the New Zealand Travel and Holidays’ Association’s meeting in June—and it was. Minister Displeased “The South Island Publicity Association rode the crest of the wave created by the Minister’s own very manifest displeasure when he spoke to the subsequent meeting, and charged that he had been affronted by this decision made without reference to him. 'lt will be recalled that the meeting deciding upon Wairakei was chaired by Mr Marshall and that some of its members were

executives of the National Airways Corporation and of Tasman Empire Airways, Ltd.— all coming under the jurisdiction of the Minister. “The reversal of the decision may not have been unexpected in the circumstances,” Mr Mitchell added. In speaking in favour of Wairakei at these meetings he spoke, “as a staunch South Islander, but primarily I spoke as a New Zealander,” Mr Mitchell said. “I am firmly convinced that although the people of Christchurch will excel themselves and be the very soul of hospitality and the quintessence of enthusiasm and energy, any city in New Zealand is a depressingly poor place for a conference by our standards, let alone by overseas standards. Almost any one of our resorts would be as good as anything the world has to offer.”