P.M. Advocates Three Industries

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31090, 20 June 1966, Page 12

P.M. Advocates Three Industries

Tourism was one of three natural strengths on which New Zealand should concentrate, said the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) in an address to the annual conference of the New Zealand Travel and Holidays Association in Christchurch on Saturday. The others were farming and forestry.

“These industries are making an. Increasingly significant and valuable contribution to overseas exchange earnings,” he said. “There is no doubt that in tourism we do have a natural competitive advantage. “We have magnificent scenery, varied and striking features and attractions, a unique indigenous Maori culture, and a friendly and hospitable people, both European and Maori, who welcome visitors and look forward to meeting them. “Much is already being done to capitalise on these natural advantages and to develop our tourist industry,” said the Prime Minister. “But there is still a tremendous challenge ahead of us. We need to diversify our export industries, and tourism offers one of the best ways of doing this.

“First, it is a fast-growing business and we must look for new exchange earners which have a real potential for growth. The figures for the last 10 years for the number of visitors and their expenditure in New Zealand show that the tourist Indus-

try has this growth factor in abundance. “A second most important point about tourism as an exchange earner is that it tends to be a stabilising factor in the balance of payments.” Unstable Prices Mr Holyoake said that while the price of primary products was notoriously unstable, the value of world tourist receipts showed no decline at all, and the rate of annual increase had varied only between 6 per cent and 21 per cent. “In developing tourism, a country introduces a stabilising element into its balance of payments which provides a, relatively steady flow of foreign exchange,” he said. “Here in New Zealand, tourism can help to give us a broader base for our overseas earnings. We will always need as much overseas exchange as we can earn to support our large capital development programme and the standard of living we want in New Zealand. “In future we will have to look more and more to tourist earnings to supplement visible trade earnings. In trade, you might have the best product in the world, but impediments, agreements with other nations and domestic policies may still deny you access to a market. “Fortunately, the tourist market does not have such restrictions and there is a constant drive towards greater freedom of movement.” Mr Holyoake said that the Government appreciated that if the tourist industry was to be fully and effectively developed, co-operation between the Government and private interests and local authorities would have to be further developed. “Proposals will shortly be considered,” he said, "to outline the extent of the facilities to be provided and to set up a scheme which could encourage this essential expansion of our tourist ameni ties.”