Casino ‘a disadvantage’

Press, 13 May 1981, Page 6

Casino ‘a disadvantage’

’By

LES BLOXHAM

travel editor '/ A casino in New Zealand

. could seriously dafnage rather than improve this 'country’s image as a popular .destination among interna‘j'tional tourists, according to a American authority r?.on tourism. Mr John G.

'Simpson, president of the Hawaii Visitors’ Bureau. Careful consideration should be given to all.possi- . ble. consequences before New Zealand committed itself to ■the casino band waggon, he said. Research had proved to Hawaii, which had experienced a substantial fall-off in visitors during the last two years, that it stood to lose ■more than it would gain .through trying to entice more tourisis with casinos. "We are convinced that ; casino gambling would turn off a large part of our -/international market," he '<said. “We know for certain that many tourists just will

not travel tb places where there are casinos."

"This was made very clear to us in Japan. If the Japanese want to go gambling all they need to do is to take a short flight to Korea. But if you visit the casinos of Seoul you will find only Japanese males there; they leave their wives behind. It is not a family market.” Mr Simpson said that the bureau’s research team had been told very bluntly by influential Japanese; “If Hawaii' introduces gambling casinos..we will no longer go there because we do not want our families to associate with' the type of’Japanese people who go to gambling resorts.”''; < . /■

Told, that ,New Zealand's pro-casino lobby was supporting its campaign on the ground that a casino-hotel facility would help boost inbound tourism. Mr Simpson said: "That’s an old, commonly used argument. Where

are these tourists going to -come from? “For instance, are we in Hawaii going to attract people from Los Angeles to come all the way here to gamble when they: can get into their cars and drive to Las Vegas? People who want to gamble will not be lured by a casino thousands of miles away,” he said. Mr Simpson is convinced that Hawaii will win back its lost tourists by holding down hotel and other prices, and improving services. There has also been -a huge combined police-community effort to clean up crime on the islands. "We see no necessity to offer casino gambling in a bid to attract a different type of market,” he said. Australian Government statistics show that Hobart, home of the Wrest Point Casino, attracts barely 3 per cent of the vast number of overseas tourists who Visit Australia each year.