Agents Contend Travel Allowances Are Inadequate

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29067, 2 December 1959, Page 19

Agents Contend Travel Allowances Are Inadequate

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, December 1. Travel agents said today that the £750 exchange allowance could well be increased, particularly for people going on short tours into “expensive territory.’’ On the other hand, statistics suggested that the average traveller —with the exception Of those going to the dollar countries, Canada and the United States—does not take up his full allowance.

Previously, travellers had been allowed £2OO for Europe and £l5O for the United States. This had now been combined into a £250 allowance for non-sterling countries generally. The reduction meant that travellers to dollar countries—which were expen-sive-r-had to watch their money very closely. People going On short cruises were allowed only £7 a day which did not go very far. People on such cruises wanted to go shopping, and visit places of entertainment, in the short time the cruise was on. Travel to the Far East was developing, but the allowance was only £2lo—a real pinch. It Would barely cover three weeks in Japan. In the year ended June 30 last, the Reserve Bank issued £8 million to New Zealanders going overseas—£7,2oo,ooo for the sterling area, £576,000 for dollar countries, and the balance for non-sterling areas such as the Continent and the East. In the same period, 22,000 New Zealanders travelled overseas to sterling countries other than Australia. The average allowance a head was thus about £330.

The average allowance taken up on travel to non-sterling

countries generally (for which £250 is allocated) was about £lBo—a slightly higher proportion. But of these travellers, those going to Canada and the United States took £240 each—virtually the entire allowance. One agent' suggested that this could be explained by the fact that quite a lot of wealthy people travelling to sterling areas, such as England, would have funds in that country to draw on. The same would not be true of the dollar areas.