AMERICAN TOURISTS REACH WELLINGTON.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19240, 29 November 1930, Page 34 (Supplement)

AMERICAN TOURISTS REACH WELLINGTON.

ARE NOT MILLIONAIRES; HAVE MODEST INCOMES. Per Press Association WELLINGTON. November 28. “A cross section of the great American public,” is how Mr Louis D. Stone, cruise director of the American Express Company, describes the tourists on the Malolo, which arrived at Wellington to-day from Sydney on a Pacific pleasure cruise. Mr Stone made it clear that those on board were not millionaires. They did not like to be labelled as such when their incomes in many cases were what one might call modest. “Retired business men and widows enjoying their life’s savings are among our travellers,” said Mr Stone, “and the fact that ladies predominate to such an extent may be ascribed to the fact that women have more leisure than men. It is so on any cruise, and now in these times of business depression the husbands find it more necessary than ever to be close to their business. The cruise is limited to ninety days, covering 24,000 miles. In every port there is the same trouble, the limited stay. The cruise has to be worked on a plan that is best for everybody, and next year the itinerary may be different. It is hoped that the cruise on the Pacific will become an annual event.” Mr Stone said that, because of the depression, other tourist cruises were being cancelled, but his company and the Matson Company, although there were only 174 passengers on board, decided to carry on, feeling that it was better to operate even at a loss than to cancel the cruise and then at a later date try to regain their position in the world tours.