ENCOURAGING TOURISTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21144, 30 March 1932, Page 10

ENCOURAGING TOURISTS.

NEW ZEALAND ATTRACTIONS. ACTIVE WORK OVERSEAS. PROMISE OF THE FUTURE. The task of encouraging tourists to visit New Zealand is one to which the Government Tourist and Publicity Department continues to apply itself with vigour, in spite of tho difficult limes through which all countries arc passing. Although the past season has reflected tho disinclination of people to spend their money upon tours with the liberality that marked former years, it is hoped that with an improvement in world conditions the tide of tourist traffic will set in with increased force. Past experience has demonstrated that when once it is sown, tho seed of publicity can frequently bo relied upon to germinate and provide fruit in unexpected times and places. An instance is quoted of one tour of New Zealand arranged in a small office in tho United States as a result of information received two years previously. Influx with Better Times. .With such demonstrations of the power of publicity in view, it is readily seen that, although present economic conditions may militate against a thriving tourist traffic, a cessation of publicity would only react upon the future. On the other baud, with the present active continuance of tho campaigns in the various countries from which tourists arc drawn, conditions should be ripe for an influx of overseas visitors when the economic stringency has passed.

Tho view that this desirable state of affairs is measurably nearer is encouraged

by tho reports of returning stability in Britain and the air of hopefulness which is slowly but surely dispersing tho clouds of depression. Also to be calculated upon arc the comparatively recent developments in the United States —a fruitful source of tourists —specifically directed toward inducing Americans to visit the Dominion. Publicity in United States.,

Interest in New Zealand is being fostered in the United States not only by tho Tourist and Publicity Department, but by travel and shipping organisations interested in the building up of a steady tourist development of these islands. The realisation is steadily gaining ground that New Zealand provides a playground in Iho Pacific hitherto more or less overlooked and when once tho unique attractions of tho Dominion become more widely known it is inevitable that tourists will arrive from America in increasing numbers.

Among the general mass of New Zealand publicity in tho United States an appeal from Americans to Americans must carry considerable weight. In this connection the commissioning of Mr. Zane Grey and Mr. Peter B. Kyno to write for American consumption special articles extolling New Zealand can be expected to bo fruitful of results. Both these novelists know New Zealand at first hand and can be relied upon to present its attractions in a graphic manner before tho American public. They have already shown what they can do in this direction. Distribution of Information. The New Zealand Tourist Department has for a long time had established in America a wido connection among the travel and shipping bureaux and their agents. Numerous and diverse New Zealand travel itineraries are drawn up, complete in every detail as to route, hotels, time and cost, and these are circulated wherever prospective tourists are to bo found. An American wishing to visit New Zealand can study every detail of his projected tour before setting foot on board ship. In Australia the work of advertising New Zealand continues to forge ahead and when the conditions in that country improve it can be expected that an evergrowing number of Australians will spend their holidays in the Dominion. Tho recent visit of tho New Zealand tourist and Trade Commissioner to Singapore and the Dutch East Indies is evidence that the possibilities of tho East as a source of tourists have been seriously regarded. This is another field which should add its quota to tho stream of tourist traffic which the future will sco flowing strongly toward New Zealand.