Travel Association

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31097, 28 June 1966, Page 16

Travel Association

Sir, —1 was disturbed, on reading an account in this morning’s issue of the annual conference of the New Zealand Travel and Holidays

Association, to see how badly the South Island is represented in the election of officers. Mr H. R. Wigley (Timaru) and Mr J. Newman (Nelson) certainly hold high positions, but on the general committee there is only one South Island representative against 12 North Island. One begins to understand why on numerous occasions one’s overseas friends have been discouraged from “wasting” much time in the South Island or grudgingly allowed a few days in Christchurch with a one-day trip to Hanmer, perhaps. Is this poor representation because there are so few people offering from the South Island, or because of outvoting by the North Island? Certainly the Travel Association pushes North Island attractions to the exclusion of all others. Has the South Island so little to offer? —Yours, etc., L.M.G. June 20, 1966. [The chief executive of the New Zealand Travel and Holidays Association (Mr N. E. Lobb) replies: “The association is" comprised of members who believe in tourism for the whole of New Zealand, not just one part of it. Apart from the three officers of the association mentioned by the correspondent, of the 13 members of the executive 10 represent national organisations serving the whole of New Zealand, such as the Government, Tourist Department, Air New Zealand. Hotel and Restaurant Workers’ Union, New Zealand Railways, National Airways Corporation, New Zealand Counties’ Association, Associated Chambers of Commerce, Shaw Savill and Albion Company, and the National Council of the Licensed Trade. Apart from national organisations, a third of our membership comes from the South Island and we would welcome as many more South Islanders who are prepared to offer themselves as members in the cause of tourism for the whole of New Zealand.”]