STEAMER BOOKINGS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 253, 20 September 1930, Page 9

STEAMER BOOKINGS.

FIGURES MUCH LIGHTER. (By Telegraph—Special to Standard.) AUCKLAND, Sept. 20. Passenger bookings on steamers leaving for England next March are much lighter at present than they have been in past years. Tourist traffic from New Zealand generally commences in March, as travellers to Great Britain, Europe or the United States gain the advantages of the northern summer. ~ During the last three or four years there have been heavy bookings in Zealand in September for vessels leaving New Zealand in the following March or April, but this year there is still plenty of accommodation available. “It is hard to predict what volume of outward tourist traffic there will be next year,” said the chief passenger clerk of one of the large shipping companies. “Early booking is only a comparatively recent development and there is’ still plenty of time for bookings to be made. However, it appears to me that the 0 decrease in bookings is an outcome of the feeling of uncertainty • concerning the Dominion’s economic position. People are waiting to see what returns they are likely to receive from the new season’s produce. If these are reasonably satisfactory, I have no doubt that the bookings will be quite up to normal.”