SHOULD UNDERTAKE OWN PUBLICITY

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 104, 27 January 1938, Page 8

SHOULD UNDERTAKE OWN PUBLICITY

Advice To South Island Dominion Special Service. Dunedin, January 26. “It is high time the South Island took its tourist publicity into its own hands and did something definite to impress on overseas tourists the valu* that they can expect for their money in the southern provinces of New Zealand,” said Mr. T. P. Williamson today. Mr. Williamson, who has just returned from a tour abroad, said that be met many American and Canadian tourists on the ship coming back to New Zealand and in nearly every case their itineraries covered from five to eight days in the Dominion and omitted the South Island altogether. One couple had heard of the South Island and had been advised to take the ferry steamer to Lyttelton, go as far as Timaru and "see the wonderful' Canterbury Plains,” and then return to Wellington. None of them seemed to have heard of the scenic beauties of the south, and yet most of them were prepared to spend a month and more in New Zealand if they could be persuaded that there was anything to see. Insufficient publicity had been given to the fact that there was a steamer service from the South Island direct to Melbourne, with the result that many people were afraid of having to double back on their tracks. Mr. Williamson said that some arrangement should be made whereby a South Island publicity man could travel on Pacific steamers and provide passengers with proper information about what the South Island had to offer. It seemed absolutely hopeless to leave it to the North Island tourist people to do anything about it. The trouble was that too many of them knew nothing about the South Island themselves.