LEFT THOUSANDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22630, 23 July 1935, Page 2

LEFT THOUSANDS

“CRUISE” PASSENGERS ESTIMATE OF £33,000 It is estimated that the 4500 passengers who visited New Zealand in “ cruise ” ships left £33,000 behind in the North Island. These figures (says the Auckland Star) have been supplied by an officer of the Government Tourist Department. Travel, accommodation and sightseeing accounted for £15,000, miscellaneous purchases at approximately £3 a head for £13,000, and port dues and other shipping charges amounted to £SOOO.

“ These items,” he said, “ can more or less be directly traced as expenditure, and, apart from these, there would be a considerable sum expended of which no reliable record can be given.”

He said that the 1934-35 tourist season had been a record for all the offices throughout New Zealand. A new departure was the visit of overseas vessels of the P. and O. and Orient Lines on direct “cruises” to New Zealand, as distinct from the inclusion of New Zealand as part of a world cruise or a “ round the Pacific ” cruise. NO DIRECT SHIPPING. At the beginning of the season it was thought that the cruises might have an adverse effect by inducing tourists to make a short trip to New Zealand instead of a more protracted tour, he added. While that may have been so in a few instances, contact with cruise passengers proved that the majority of the passengers were from West Australia, South Australia and Queensland, three States which had no direct shipping connection with New Zealand. A particular feature of the season was the large number of visitors from Great Britain. The rate of exchange had been an added inducement to English tourists. Organised parties from Australia had been somewhat disappointing, but probably the counter- attraction of the Melbourne centenary was largely responsible for the drop in that respect. There was no question that a satisfied tourist was the best advertisement that the Dominion could have, and with the establishment next year of officers of the department on the Pacific Coast of America and in Central Europe, there was no question that greater business would eventuate. The prospects for next season appeared to be exceedingly bright.