AMERICAN TASTES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 3, 5 January 1944, Page 2

AMERICAN TASTES

NEW ZEALAND’S TOURIST TRADE AFTER WAR MODERN HOTELS NEEDED Auckland, Jan. 3. If New Zealand is to entertain large numbers of overseas tourists after the war and send them away metaphorically singing its praises, more will have to be done to provide “de luxe” hotel accommodation of the type required by Americans with money to spend. This is not to say that the hotel system should be revolutionised overnight. The aim should be to cater : for a certain number of such tourists at first, and to plan so that more can be provided for as the traffic grows. It is not disputed that the large majority of pre-war visitors to New Zealand found the travel arrangements and hotel accommodation good encugh for their needs, at any rate in summer. The Dominion being considered remote, travellers arrived in a tolerant mood and did not expect all the luxuries, or even amenities to which they were accustomed when travelling in their homelands. Some English persons, particularly sportsmen, enjoyed “roughing it.” Must Australians found conditions familiar and felt perfectly at home. Americans in general had only a few .grounds for complaint, such as the small ration of hotel bathrooms to bedrooms, and the almost complete lack of central heating. They found much of the cookery unimaginative, but did not make a fuss about it. Dancing in Hotels.

As New Zealand is drawn closer to the United States by air transportation and American visitors arrive in larger numbers, such persons are not likely to accept local ways as readily as in the past. It is held by those who are in a position to know that many of them will look for certain refinements of accommodation and service that are taken for granted in good hotels throughout the United States. Among these are bedrooms with bath attached, “room service’’ of meals when required, more varied menus incorporating some American features, and provision for dancing in hotels at tourist resorts. An Auckland man who travelled widely before the war in Europe and the United States was asked to give his views on the needs of American hotel guests. He offered several suggestions. “It would be a great added attraction to Americans,” he said, “If when booking a tour they could be assured that they would iind accommodation of good American standard at every main tourist centre in New Zealand. By this, I mean buildings that would be comfortable in summer or winter; dinner at 8 o’clock, not 6' o’clock, with the summer sun high in the sky; no rigid time-table for meals eaten in a hurry because the dining room must be cleared by a certain time; good coffee in American style, plenty of fruit and salads in season, and ice water always available. “One point I found strictly maintained, even on railway dining cars in America and Canada, was that strangers were never asked to sit together at table in a first-class hotel. The lone guest was given a table to himself. A party of two or more persons was treated similarly and no vacant place at an occupied table was filled, however many guests were waiting their turn. We might think it strange, but it was the recognised rule.”

Service Bather Than New Buildings.

A consensus of opinion is that, in the earlier stages of post-war American tourist traffic, New Zealand hotel management should concentrate on service rather than on new buildings, but that new hotels of suitable types should be erected as soon as the growth of business warranted, or somewhat earlier if prospects are assured.

Naturally, several kinds of hotel would be required—a multi-storey modern building at Auckland, as the landing poi.’it for tourists; a large “country dub” or lakeside hold at Rotorua, and possibly another n tiie lake Taupo region. At all lesser tourist centres there might be “lodge” cr “chalet” establishments, each with a central building and detached cottages for guests, preferable set in wooded grounds, the whole providing accommodation and service of a “luxury” order. The design of these hotels lends itself well to gradual enlargements. If American tourists are to be properly catered for. certain obstacles set ud by the Licensing Act will have to be removed, for it will be essential to make provision for the sale of liquor to guests at tourist hotels, except the smallest and most remote. The archaic section of the Act which, for all practical purposes, puts a ban on dancing or any form of stage entertainment in hotels should be repealed in order that ballrooms may be included in the designs for any large hotels to be erect-

ed after the war is over. Such rooms are a feature of all first-class American and Canadian hotels, and are used for dancing, conferences, meetings, lectures and social functions of many kinds.

It is also probable that some of the too-rigid restrictions imposed by industrial awards in recent years will need to be relaxed if full hotel service is to be provided for American visitors. The difficulty of making such changes or of securing amendments to the Licensing Act appears formidable. and must be frankly recognised. Unsupported rumours have been circulating to the effect that the Government has plans for bstablishing a chain of State-operated tourist hotels. If the rumours have any basis in fact, such a project may be a means of easing the restrictions. .