TOURISTS MUST BE TREATED FAIRLY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22618, 22 April 1948, Page 4

TOURISTS MUST BE TREATED FAIRLY

“IF tourists are to he attracted to New Zealand, any tendency to charge them excessive prices will need to he corrected,” stated an American visitor, Captain Byrholdt, in the course of an interview in Auckland this week. If Captain Byrholdt happened to read a certain newspaper paragraph which has been going the rounds recently, it would he easy to understand the reaction that impelled him to give this warning. A New Zealand publicity officer has been quoted as saying: “The American is not on our own costs basis, and can he brought here only by raising the standard of what we have to offer and by charging him through the nose for it. This is the standard practice overseas.” Although it is true that most American tourists—and Britons, too, for that matter—would like to see the standard of our amenities raised and would he willing to pay on a fair and reasonable basis for any improved services placed at their disposal, it is inevitable that they would take a critical view of a revenue-producing policy founded on the idea of making visitors “pay through the nose.” The standard practice overseas need not and should not interest this Dominion. In the eyes of tourists, for instance, one of its charms is the virtual absence of the system of tipping, which in some countries is an unmitigated nuisance as well as a considerable extra expense on top of the conventional charges for accommodation and travel. New Zealand should welcome tourists and do everything in her power to make them comfortable. But it would be a sad day for us all if we developed into a race of mercenary touts with few thoughts more elevating than the extraction of money from visitors over and above what was fair recompense for services rendered.