Bottlenecks Loom For Tourist Flow

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30946, 30 December 1965, Page 8

Bottlenecks Loom For Tourist Flow

The first trickle of overseas visitors to New Zealand has begun and during the next few weeks is expected to build up to a torrent

During the same period big numbers of New Zealanders are expected to depart by air and sea for the northern hemisphere for extended holidays to dodge the winter at home.

Christchurch travel agents reported yesterday that it would be extremely difficult for those contemplating overseas travel and not already booked to get berths. On the home scene it would require a lot of itinerary juggling to ensure that overseas visitors were able to visit the places they wanted to. “It is not a question of where they want to go but where they can get in,” one agent said. Off-Season Tours During the last four weeks'

hundreds of young people have left New Zealand on offseaso bookings bound for the United Kingdom and Europe. The last sailings at offseason rates will be the Fairsky and Sydney from Wellington today. Both ships are fully booked. Travel agents said bookings were extremely heavy on the inext 30 sailings from Wellingiton and Auckland from the

beginning of January to the end of May. Hotels in Christchurch have reported a sudden movement of tourists and from now until the end of March they expect to be “flat out.”

Over Christmas the larger hotels had to cope with hundreds of visitors as well as many local people who decided to have their Christmas dinner without going to the trouble of preparing it themselves. Americans and Australians dominate the overseas signatures in hotel registers while there is a sprinkling from other countries including the United Kingdom, South Africa and Switzerland.