TOURIST ATTRACTIONS.

Evening Star, Issue 22228, 4 January 1936, Page 10

TOURIST ATTRACTIONS.

Year hy year the importance of encouraging tourist traffic to New Zealand is receiving increased recognition. A continual stream of overseas travellers, greater in volume perhaps in some seasons than in others, cannot help but assist . very materially to keep Dominion finance in a healthy state. In some'- measure, at least, it must compensate us for the depressed markets to which we are vulnerable. Thanks largely to faster and more luxurious shipping services,. British and American tourists seem more ready to undertake the long voyage to these waters than they once were, and it now behoves New Zealand to keep pace with the improved mode of travel by putting her own house in the bcs£ possible order. For some tourists are rather hard to please. All of them may go into raptures over the majesty of the South Island’s exquisite lake and mountain scenery; they may be greatly intrigued by the thermal wonders of the North; but not in every case is cramped or inferior accommodation regarded as an unusual and therefore a more or leas refreshing experience. It is not suggested that, the state of the existing facilities calls for undue criticism. Judged by our own standards. New Zealand tourist accommodation is homely and comfortable. Moreover, steady improvements, in some instances sponsored by Governmental departments, are taking place. It seems, however, that a note of warning should he issued lest there should be a self-satisfied abatement of developments calculated to encourage oversea visitors.

The South Island’s immediate problem concerns the task of drawing its fair share of tourists to scsnic resorts, some of which, unfortunately, are not so accessible as those in. the North. There may have been a time when officials of the Tourist Department showed a bias for the North Island in. planning itineraries, but tie more gaggnj; poUcg of die detoairtment appears

to indicate that southern protests against neglect have, served their purpose well. As is pointed out in the annual report of the New Zealand Tourist League, there is a feeling that the South Island does not get its due share of visitors from overseas because North Island ports are called at by transpacific steamers, the trouble being augmented by the fact that strangers do not realise how necessary it is to spend more time in the Dominion to be able to see the wide variety of. natural beauty, access to which has been opened up for them. But a reformation of this attitude will surely follow in the wake of the increased publicity abroad which is being organisedpublicity in which the South Island must participate equally with its sister island across Cook Strait.

The difficulty of establishing direct shipping connections with countries beyond New Zealand shores has long been felt, by the south. It became particularly acute when the Panama Canal was opened, for the inauguration of that irresistible time-saver heralded a big decline in Melbourne transhipments to Bluff and Dunedin. The Union Steam Ship' Company has done its best to keep the service alive, and there are solid grounds for the hope that the, hundreds of passengers carried by the Marama on " her present Southern Tasman running will be the means of advertising still further the incomparable scenio delights of Milford Sound and other holiday resorts in this part of the Dominion. In the meantime the decision of the'Osaka Shosen Kaisha Line to establish a direct shipping trade between’ New Zealand and Japan, with Dunedin and Lyttelton included in the proposed extended service, will be regarded- as a welcome sign that in the eyes of the outside world the South Island is still on the map.