Govt promotion defended

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32637, 19 June 1971, Page 3

Govt promotion defended

(New Zealand Press Association)

WANGANUI, June 18.

The Minister of Tourism (Mr Walker) told the National Travel Association’s annual conference in Wanganui today that if it wanted the tourist industry to grow faster, it should provide more cash for promotion.-’

Mr Walker said he noted pressure from the association to increase the Government’s tourist promotional budget to four per cent of annual travel receipts. "I can’t accept the validity of the argument that what big business does with four per cent of its income should also be done by the Government with money that Government does not receive,” he said. GOVERNMENT SHARE

“Reserve Bank Receipts from travel do not represent the Government’s earnings from tourists. They represent the overseas earnings of the whole industry.” Mr Walker said that only a minor part of the receipts went to the Governmentowned agencies or corporations involved in the travel and tourist business. He estimated that of the $33.5m in receipts from travel recorded by the Reserve Bank last year, only one fifth did in fact go to the Government.

He said that if the four per cent formula was applied on that basis, the Tourist Department’s promotional vote would be only $260,000. The Government had, however, allocated $759,000 for advertising and publicity for tourism this financial year—an increase of more than $lOO,OOO on last year. Last year, New Zealand’s earnings from tourism were about $33.5m, compared with, for example, $405.2m from meat exports, but the growth rate of tourism earnings was much greater than in any other export field, save manufacturing, he said. FILM CREWS New Zealand was receiving “terrific” publicity from visiting film crews and writers, and never before had

the country’s tourist attractions been promoted more extensively or effectively, Mr Walker said.

Scarcely a month passed without a visit from a team making films on aspects of New Zealand for television or cinema showing, he said. The National Film Unit also made many productions and one ski-ing film, “Wild September Snow,” was to be released throughout the world by United Artists and should reach an audience of at least 80 million people. More than 12 overseas film crews and 100 travel writers had visited New Zealand in the last year, Mr Walker added.