N.Z. travel agents fear business loss

Press, 14 December 1982, Page 16

N.Z. travel agents fear business loss

PA Wellington New Zealand travel agents will lose business to overseas concerns if proposed legislation to clamp down on illegal air fares is enacted, a Parliamentary select committee has been told. In submissions on the Civil Aviation Amendment (No. 2) Bill, eight big tour operators and travel agents said that “over-regulation or impractical regulation in New Zealand will simply drive the business offshore or abroad.” When the Bill was introduced last month, the Minister of Transport, Mr Gair said it was designed to give the Government the ability to prosecute airlines break-

ing air tariff regulations with illegal discounting. The travel agents said New Zealanders would be buying tickets only to get out of the country, then buying additional tickets at discounted rates abroad. Consequently the New Zealand travel industry would lose on business and Air New Zealand would be deprived of a significant proportion of its present market. There would also be a much heavier drain on overseas exchange and “an explosion of credit-card expenditure over which the Treasury has very little practical control." The bill would have the effect of eliminating market

forces, rather than regulating them, the agents said. The travel agents' called for a uniformity of approach between Australia and New Zealand to fare setting. Most Air New Zealand flights which New Zealanders used to North America originated in either Sydney or Melbourne. “On the same flight the illogical situation could develop of a New Zealander who bought his ticket in New Zealand sitting alongside New Zealanders travelling from Sydney who were, on the national carrier, paying substantially lower fares than those available to the New Zealand resident,” they said.