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(2) THE DOMESTIC FIELD A prime difficulty to-day is the provision of hotel accommodation for tourists. Travel by New Zealand residents within the country has increased tremendously in recent years. Hotel-proprietors have been confronted with problems in obtaining adequate staff, and their difficulties have been intensified by being obliged to rely more and more upon untrained staff. In the case of licensed hotels, the maintenance of the accommodation activities of establishments is becoming increasingly unattractive. In general, the Department has received good co-operation from hotel-proprietors, but it is apparent that the time has come when action is necessary to make the supply of guest accommodation a more attractive proposition. Such action will encourage the necessary improvement in and expansion of this important service. The Chateau Tongariro, which is again under the control of this Department, will be reopened shortly, and this will augment available tourist accommodation. Progress in renovating the Hotel Wairakei has been very slow owing to higher priorities for material and labour. Nothing definite can yet be stated regarding the date of its reopening. There has been some difficulty also in obtaining tourist transport within New Zealand. These travel difficulties make it more necessary for tourists and travellers to seek the expert advice of the Department's Tourist Bureau and Agents to a greater extent than ever before. Provided sufficient notice is given, careful planning of tours by the Department usually overcomes these difficulties. A feature of travel in pre-war days was that the tourist could at most times of the year make day-to-day arrangements. This is now no longer possible, because of the greater numbers travelling and because of the handicaps already mentioned. The most outstanding post-war development has been the operation of conducted party tours. Auckland. —Passenger-booking sales advanced by 20 per cent. During the year 10,073 tours were sold, and 25,333 bookings were made. Eighty-seven conducted party tours were organized on itineraries for the North and South Islands. Three large conducted tour parties organized in Australia were dealt with by this Bureau. The majority of overseas visitors came from Australia. A few more Americans were booked this year, most of them arriving by the trans-Pacific air services. Local travel was dislocated to some extent during the summer owing to the restrictions imposed in connection with the poliomyelitis epidemic. Rotorua. —Passenger-booking sales advanced by 7f per cent. The travel restriction on juveniles elsewhere referred to had a retarding influence on sales. As usual, a great deal of work was carried out by Rotorua office for other Bureaux and Agencies in connection with accommodation and transport reservations. The accommodation position at Rotorua shows no improvement over the previous year and is considered to have deteriorated. Te Aroha. —Although passenger-booking functions are not a major activity at this resort, business transacted shows an increase of £B5O for the year in review. Wellington.—This Bureau shows an increase of £56,160 in sales made. Interesting developments during the year were increased air business, the promotion and operation of fourteen conducted party tours, and two organized tours of footballers and bowlers from South Africa and British Columbia respectively. In addition, fifteen special automobile tours and ten group travel tours were arranged. Special travel arrangements serviced by the Bureau included the Girl Guides Association Conference, local sporting teams covering cricket, Rugby, association, hockey, softball, marching, &c. Reservation of accommodation for persons travelling with their own private automobiles was another feature of work during the year.

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