Faith in the south

Press, 24 August 1976, Page 22

Faith in the south

Sir Henry said that most tourists coming to New Zealand were from Australia, and this was where the greatest potential lay. For the year ended February, 1976,

By

ROBIN SMITH,

a staff reporter

The south-west part of the South Island has the greatest potential for tourism in New Zealand, according to Sir Henry Wigley, managing director of the Mount Cook and Southern Lakes Tourist Company.

Northland had tourist potential, Sir Henry said in an interview last week, but it was a place more for New Zealand holidaymakers. Tourists from Australia were not so interested in swimming and yachting and the other attractions of Northland as they were in the spectacular nature of the southwest of the South Island. He said the area from Arthur’s Pass to Manapouri -was full of spectacular scenery; a major attraction for tourists.

Already the majority of overseas tours came to the South Island. He said the ratio was five to two in the South Island’s favour.

158,000 holiday makers came from Australia. The next largest group was from the United States and it totalled only 36,000. From Canada there were 9000, Japan 7000, the United Kingdom 7000. and from Western Europe, 5000. The Australian figure represented an increase of 22,000 visitors over the previous year. Sir Henry said that Queenstown, which along with Mount Cook had been developed as a centre for his company’s business, would continue to grow. “Success breeds success. Queenstown will keep growing because there are so many things to do there. There are more than 30 activities from skiing to jet-boating, to golfing and swimming,” said Sir Henry. He said there was no chance of

Queenstown becoming too expensive for the average New Zealander because of the diversity of accommodation available — from luxuryhotels to camping grounds. The majority of tourists today were average people who came to New Zealand on tours, said Sir Henry. His company’s ski-plane flights at Mount Cook had been given tremendous publicity, especially through a Cinerama film which was released world-wide. The Mount Cook company’s new airport at Kerikeri, Northland, would be operating by November, Sir Henry said. Hawker Siddeley 748 aircraft would be used. With Kerikeri operational. the company would be able to fly tours direct to the Bay of Islands from Auckland.