Tasman air fares cut needed for Australian tourists

Press, 17 January 1979, Page 3

Tasman air fares cut needed for Australian tourists

By

LES BLOXHAM,

travel editor

A substantial cut in air fares across the Tasman was urgently needed for New Zealand to retain its appeal among Australians as a holiday destination, said Mr Bruce Robertson, managing director (operations) of Trans Holdings, Ltd, yesterday. He warned that New Zealand’s multi-million dollar tourist industry had been placed in grave danger by the new low fares now available to Australians for travel to other destinations.

Trans Holdings had also joined other travel firms involved in bringing tourists to New Zealand in their criticism of Air New Zealand for wanting to fly Australians from Sydney to Los Angeles to the detriment of the airline’s home market. “The situation is so serious that Air New Zealand can no longer afford to play around,” said Mr Robertson. “The Tasman roundtrip rate needs to be slashed to $99, even if it is only seasonal and laden with restrictions.

“A token reduction of 10 per cent, or so, just won’t work.”

Mr Robertson said Australians were already being wooed by Qantas to fly to exotic, far-flung shores at the new low fares.

“Our Sydney manager arrived here this week with a sheaf of newspaper adver-

tisements inviting Australians to fly to Honolulu and bad; for as little as $3BO, or to San Francisco for $430 return,” he said.

Trans Holdings’ cheapest 14-night tour of New Zealand, including the Tasman fare, accommodation, and ground transport, is being marketed in Sydney for $6Ol. The all-inclusive cost, with meals, is $826.

The air fare component of the package is SA2O2, a figure which Mr Robertson wants to see cut by more than half.

Asked whether his company would endeavour to reduce its land costs, he said: “We would have to try. There is a limit to what can be done, but we must try everything to remain competitive.”

Mr Robertson added that the threat to the New Zealand market was being compounded by Qantas’s plans for much lower fares to other places throughout the world.

In addition to the new low Pacific fares, Australians will soon be able to fly to London and back during offpeak periods for only $568.

“New Zealand cannot afford to dilly-dally at a time when Australians are queueing in the streets for cheap fares to other destinations,” he said, adding that his company had already! noticed a fall-off in forward bookings.

“I feel sorry for Air New Zealand in its present predicament, but I feel a lot sorrier for the New Zealand travel industry as a whole,” said Mr Robertson.

Australians last year made up almost 60 per cent of New Zealand’s total number of overseas tourists, an industry which in the same period earned the country SISSM in foreign exchange. Air New Zealand’s public affairs manager, Mr J. Berry, has confirmed that the airline had reduced its promotional budgets in “several areas, including North America,” but he added that the airline was not prepared to disclose any figures which might prove of interest to its competitors.

He was commenting on an allegation by a former Mayor of Christchurch, Mr A. R. Guthrey, that the airline’s North American budget had been cut by $400,000.

Mr Guthrey, who maintains that the budget should have been increased by $400,000, obtained the figure from a reliable source during a recent visit to Los Angeles.

According io National Travel Association statistics, every overseas visitor attracted to New Zealand costs the country $5.75 in promotional funds, but whilst here, contributes $4OO in foreign exchange.