ATTRACTING THE TOURIST.

Evening Star, Issue 22721, 7 August 1937, Page 16

ATTRACTING THE TOURIST.

Last night the executive council of the South Islands Travel Association met in Dunedin. This is a live body that is putting energy into a good cause. There is no occasion to stress the potentialities of the tourist traffic. Everyone knows what they are. The need at the moment is a co-ordinated policy to remove the obstacles that stand in the way of a greater inflow of visitors from overseas. In its great variety of unexcelled scenic attractions and facilities for open-air sport New Zealand should be a compelling attraction to those in search of health and amusement; but, as was indicated last night, much remains to be done before the Dominion can reap the full benefit from the gifts in climate and scenery that Nature has endowed it with. Two things to which attention is directed call for immediate action. One is to improve the transport facilities and the other to see that the standard of accommodation, if not luxurious, shall at least be comfortable. Tourists do not come here to rough it in the pioneer spirit. They expect that the hotel facilities will at least approximate those of other countries. In the course- of his address last evening the mayor, essaying the role of a prophet, said that New Zealand could look forward to a long ijeriod of prosperity. Everyone will hope the prediction will be fulfilled. But that is by the way. Mr Cox made some good points bearing on the work and objects of the Travel Association. He urged the members of that body to take off their coats and put the South Island in the very centre of the tourist traffic of the Pacific. “If we could get 50,000 people to visit this country in a year we should then have an industry worth at least £5,000,000,” he said. There is no exaggeration in this statement. It is an illustration of what might he achieved by vigorous and persistent publicity and propaganda. So far as the South Island is concerned, that part of: the'Dominion has been hinder a handicap since the days when Sir Joseph Ward established the Tourist Department. Better a month in the north than a cycle in the south seemed to be the prevailing official idea. The position is more , equitable now, and the department’s officers prepare the itineraries so that a visitor from overseas shall have an opportunity of seeing Mount Cook, the Franz Josef, and the wonderful chain of southern lakes. Still, with its accommodation possessions at Rotorua, Waikaremoana, and the' Chateau Tongariro, it is inevitable that the Government bias should he in favour of these places. In the South Island Milford alone has an accommodation house under direct State supervision, and in the meantime that beautiful and unique area is isolated for a great part of the year. An important work for immediate prosecution stressed by Mr J. W. Pollard, the director of the South Islands Travel Association, was the completion of the Milford Sound and Haast Pass roads, which would provide, beginning at Nelson or Milford Sound, one of the finest motor drives in the world. Another work of a highly desirable nature from the tourist aspect is the provision of a good road from Invercargill along the coast to the Gatlins district, which would afford wonderful vistas of native bush and ocean scenery. In the matter of accommodation, points made in the report that was submitted to the meeting were that the first class hotels in the main were satisfactory, and that the modernisation of licensed houses continued steadily, but that there were not sufficient hotels that provide good accommodation at a lower tariff. Obvious defects in the present arrangements were pointed out, with suggestions for remedying the position, and allusion was made, based on numerous complaints heard recently from visitors, to the rigidity of the new labour laws passed by the Government so far as they affect hotels, restaurants, and boarding houses. It is quite clear that the South Islands Travel Association is working on the right lines, and with the co-operation of other Interested bodies good results should be achieved.