Tourist to an unknown land

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33154, 19 February 1973, Page 2

Tourist to an unknown land

(N Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Feb. 18. A 64-year-old woman American tourist and writer wants to meet the Minister of Tourism (Mrs TirikateneSullivan) to tell her the hard facts about the difficulties she encountered in arranging to visit New Zealand. Mrs Marion Mills arrived in Auckland on Friday—but only after three months of hassle to get from her home in Madison, Wisconsin, to New Zealand.

“And then I had to make a completely unwanted stop in Tahiti,” complained Mrs Mills at her North Shore motel yesterday. Mrs Mills started planning her three-week visit three months ago, with a visit to her travel agent. “They didn’t want to know,” she said. “So I tried another agent. He sent away for information, but never got a reply. “The third travel agent I tried got me here—but only after a two-day stop in Tahiti.” After three times asking

a major airline office for information about New Zealand—and each time receiving brochures on Australia—Mrs Mills wrote to the New Zealand Embassy in Washington. “They were very helpful, but the information they could give me wasn’t a great deal of use to a tourist,” she said.

Mrs Mills has travelled round the world, and makes an overseas trip every second year.

“But I’ve never had the difficulty in finding out about a place and getting there that I’ve had with New Zealand,” she said. “What you need is some sort of central tourist office in the United States where people can apply for information that is relevant to tourists.”