MINISTER QUESTIONS EMPHASIS ON PA UA

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31399, 19 June 1967, Page 3

MINISTER QUESTIONS EMPHASIS ON PA UA

(N.Z. Press Association) .WELLINGTON, June 18. “Does anybody know for sure what our visitors are looking for in the way of souvenirs?” asked the Minister of Tourism (Mr Thomson) at the opening of the New Zealand Travel and Holidays Association convention. Mr Thomson asked if any organisation had thought to investigate the market properly in a sample survey of visitors to New Zealand to find out the type of souvenir -they would like to buy; to find out what they expect tc

pay; to establish the price range of similar articles overseas. Although most retailers in New Zealand put their preference on greenstone and paua shell goods, to a sophisticated tourist who had travelled extensively, greenstone was very similar to some types of jade. Paua shell, too, bad its overseas counterpart in the North American abalone shell, said the Minister.

“While I’m not saying that we are doing the wrong thing in ‘majoring’ on paua shell and green-

stone, do we on the other hand really know for certain that these are in fact the goods our visitors desire?

“As a farmer, a lambskin rug is nothing very special to me, but the recent tourist mission to North America took some with them and apparently people just went absolutely crazy over them.” The Minister said: “There are things that we New Zealanders are pretty blase about but which can be made up into articles and sold most advantageously to our visitors.”