New Hotel At Franz Josef May Lose £30,000 A Year

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29271, 1 August 1960, Page 10

New Hotel At Franz Josef May Lose £30,000 A Year

The plans for the new Franz Josef Hotel envisaged a building costing £454,000 and an estimated year, loss of £30,000, said the Minister in charge of Tourist and Health Resorts (Mr Mathison) speaking to a deputation of members of South Island chambers of commerce who requested that the Government take immediate steps to replace the main South Island tourist hotels destroyed by fire. It was obvious tliat it would be up to the Government to replace any of the destroyed hotels or build new ones, the Minister said. Private enterprise would not undertake large capital expenditure because of the economics involved and the relatively poor return for the investment. Mr N. Adams, representing Invercargill and Queenstown, said people were anxious to see Eichardt’s Hotel rebuilt. Also there was the feeling that the Wanaka hotel should be rebuilt to complete the chain of tourist hotels in the South Island. Approach to Tourism "Naturally the people oh the West Coast are mainly concerned with the building of the Franz Josef hotel, but they are concerned with the whole approach to tourism," said Mr J Truman (Greymouth). There had been a considerable swing in recent years for tourists to visit the Pacific area. With the troubles in Africa, and Cuba not very attractive to American tourists now. New Zealand should make a determined effort to attract more tourists, he said. Replying to the deputation Mr Mathison said the Government was well aware of New Zealand’s potential in the tourist trade, and in recent years the number of tourists coming to the country had shown a large increase. “It must be remembered, though, that hotels are very

expensive items, and ones that are up to the standard demanded by overseas visitors meant an outlay of a large amount of capital," he said. “The South Island had not been neglected by tourists because of the lack of. hotels. Last year the South Island took more tourists than the North Island.” Mr Mathison said a great deal had been done to the South Island hotels. The Hermitage had been rebuilt almost immediately and an extra wing costing £130,000 was to be added. There was no doubt it was one of the finest tourist hotels in the country. Plans were ready for Franz Josef. The delay in rebuilding that hotel had been caused by the residents on the West Coast not being able to decide on a site. Queenstow-i And Wanaka

The demand for a new hotel at Queenstown was not so great, as accommodation in the town was quite good. However, in Wanaka there was scope for a new hotel. The problem was finance. The owner of the destroyed hotel had not been able to find sufficient finance to rebuild. It was estimated that to build a suitable new hotel there would cost about £400,000. said the. Minister. Thanking the Minister for the information he had given the deputation the president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce (Mr J. Roy Smith) said the deputation now had a different picture of the work being done for tourism in the South Island and had been agreeably surprised at the amount that had been done, and was to be done.