OUTSPOKEN VISITOR

Wanganui Chronicle, 16 December 1949, Page 5

OUTSPOKEN VISITOR

Hotel Staffs Criticised AUCKLAND, Yesterday (P.A.)— “Your country is killing its own tourist trade." Tl.at is the opinion of Sir Frank Newson-Smith, a wartime Lord Mayor of London and vice-chairman of the Automobile Association of Great Britain, given in an interview published in the current number of the A.A. (Auckland) official bulletin, following a brief visit to the Dominion last month. Sir Frank was deeply impressed by the beauty of New Zealand and by the variety and magnitude of its scenic attractions and facilities for sport. Although he deeply appreciated the private hospitality shown him, he was “frankly amazed at the casual indifference—if not downright rudeness” —with which many members of hotel staffs in New Zealand so frequently treated guests. “You have almost reached the stage,” he stated in the interview, “that if one of them shows any special little courtesy or consideration I want, to blink my eyes and wonder if I can possibly still be in New Zealand. You have everything to attract tourists in swarms, tourists who could, and would, pay liberally, but they will not come here to be diet?ted to as to when and where they : eat, where they may sit, and so on.