WEALTHY TOURISTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 86, 2 July 1927, Page 8

WEALTHY TOURISTS

Sir, From time to time various articles have been published by the journals of New Zealand on the tourist policy and the encouraging of tourists to visit this land of wonders. One who has visited most of the great, magnificent places of resort the world can offer and has taken particular care to become associated with the people who visit them, must naturally draw conclusions. In France, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Italy, Germany, Norway, Sweden, America and Canada, the first thing that strikes one is the class of tourist who visits these places. The majority are more or less of the middle classes, staying at medium-class hotels.

What brings them is the low cost entailed in travelling across the sea for a month of enjoyment. Then, again, at the very best hotels one meets peo'ple to whom money or time is not of much consequence. Distance iS not a serious matter, provided they think they will be compensated for their trouble. This is the class we must cater for in New Zealand. It would be useless to expect the hundreds who cross the Channel with a capital of, say, from £lO to £SO, to visit New Zealand. It is beyond their means. The people we must expect as tourists for Now Zealand are the wealthy class. When in the various world resorts, in the palatial hotels one makes mention of the attractions of New Zealand with its trout-fishing, deep-sea fishing, its snow-clad mountains, its lakes, its rivers, and lastly Rotorua's thermal regions, these people listen and ask many questions. They are the tourists we must attract and there are many ways of doing it. WALTER F. DARBY. ✓