HOLIDAY SEASON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24773, 25 November 1941, Page 6

HOLIDAY SEASON

♦ HEAVY TOURIST TRAFFIC ACCOMMODATION AT A PREMIUM " South Island, and particularly Dunedin residents, are notoriously North Island-minded," said a man who, for many years, has been connected with tourist matters in New Zealand and abroad, to a Daily Times reporter yesterday. "They flock to the North Island for their holidays, and never think of seeing the show places of the south. The north-south controversy—now fairly quiescent, thank goodness —would never have arisen if it were not for the fact that .South Island people cannot talk about their own tourist resorts when they go north." This year, he said, there was every indication that tourist traffic within the Dominion would be heavy. Travelling overseas was virtually out of the question, and the result was a practically unprecedented demand for accommodation at all resorts in both islands. From another source it was learned that train traffic this year promised to be heavier than at any other time since the Exhibition. This was due to the petrol restrictions, which were forcing at least ' the long-distance travellers into using the railways for trips which, in other circumstances, would probably have been made by car. "There is only a very bare minimum of accommodation left at the Otago and Southland resorts," said the local manager of the Government Tourist Bureau, Mr R. G. Sincock, " except at Stewart Island, where it is still easy to find board. "The Milford track is going to be well patronised," he added, " and at least two large parties, each of about 40 members, have completed arrangements." Mr Sincock also expressed the opinion that rail traffic this year would eclipse all records since the Exhibition, and stated that bookings between the North and South Islands were the heaviest in his recollection.