Scenic has better view

Press, 31 March 1989, Page 15

Scenic has better view

PA Dunedin There are indications that the tourist recession has hit bottom and a turnaround has started, Scenic Circle Corporation’s chairman, Mr Ralph Brown, told the company’s annual meeting. The year 1988 was depressing. The tourist industry had been a “real disaster” for the last two years. "We are doing as well as anyone in facing up to the difficulties. Hopefully, we are coming out of it. It is difficult

to see what our returns will be but hopefully they will be much better than last year.” There had been a positive cash flow in the past four months, he said. There was now renewed interest from overseas and the lower New Zealand dollar was causing the local population to travel within the country. Discussing the $7,154,000 loss in the year to October 31, Mr Brown said most of the red ink was because of a substantial write-down of the

company’s properties and it was therefore a paper loss. The cash loss was $542,000. The Southern Cross Hotel in Dunedin had only been written down by $200,000, so the bulk of the writing down ($5.4 million) was attributed to the two West Coast hotels at Franz and Fox Glaciers. The valuers, J. O. McPherson and Associates, of Dunedin, had taken a conservative approach. “You can see we are doing a lot better than a lot of other companies,” Mr Brown said.