Tours

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31028, 6 April 1966, Page 16

Tours

Sir, —If tourism is to flourish to the benefit of New Zealand, it is surely necessary that professional tour organisers should supply the kind of tour advertised in their brochures and for which they collect the specified charge. With 27 other passengers I left Christchurch on the “Alpine Tour” of Trans Tours, Ltd., at 9 a.m. on March 20. As we left, the agent stepped into the bus and informed us we would have no guide as he was not well. The driver would do his best; but being unfamiliar with the route through the West Coast, Haast Pass, and Cold Lakes, he had to concentrate on his driving. So we have had a silent drive through historic country. Half the passengers were from Britain and Australia, and as the fares collected amount to over £l5OO, one can understand that the feeling is that we have been exploited. —Yours, etc., DISSATISFIED. April 3, 1966. iThe managing-director of Trans Tours (N.Z.) Ltd., (Mr D. Mundell) replies: “It was unfortunate that the guide for this tour took ill the night before the tour left and that no other guide was available. Trans Tours is the only company which regularly employs tour guides, and this complaint shows just how much guides are necessary. Of 400 tours conducted by the company last year fewer than 1 per cent were not accompanied by a guide. The driver had had previous experience as a driver-guide for other tour companies, knew the route well and has since' been thanked in a letter re-1 ceived by Trans Tours from' one of the tourists.”!