'Convoy’ tours popular

Press, 2 September 1986, Page 27

'Convoy’ tours popular

Convoy motor home holidays are the latest idea to capture the American tourist’s imagination.

Somewhat reminiscent of America’s wagon trains, these motor homes can be hired by a number of families who wish to holiday together yet have the independence and privacy of their own “home away from home.” Last summer Mount Cook Line had 18 vehicles in one group, and for the coming season it has a booking for ten, and several tentative bookings for groups of 30. “At this stage it seems to be only Americans that

are the convoy types. They seem to like their independence on holiday but at the same time enjoy the companionship of people they know,” said the Motor Home Divisional manager, Mr Frank Gunn. The idea might not sound so appealing to the ordinary Kiwi motorist envisaging being held up by a bunch of left-hand driving holidaying Americans, but the drivers are well schooled in the Kiwi road code and etiquette before taking possession of their vehicles. Vehicles

also scatter during the day and meet up at night. “We give all our clients a pep talk and copies of the road code before going out on the road. And for overseas tourists we always point out the major differences between our rules and theirs,” said Mr Gunn. This year the company is also considering bringing in Ministry of Transport representatives to advise the larger groups. While American motor home bookings are on the increase, it is still the

Australian market that forms the bulk of Mount Cook Line’s overseas motor home bookings. “Australia has traditionally been our biggest foreign market. The economy, independence and ability to take the whole family on a motor home holiday seems to appeal to them,” said Mr Gunn. The same reasons attract New Zealand holi-day-makers and already summer bookings for Mount Cook Line’s fleet of three and six-berth vehicles are ahead of last year.