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TRAVEL PROMOTION (1) ORGANIZATION In addition to the six active Bureaux in New Zealand centres, and also at Sydney, Melbourne, and London, the Department has twenty-two selling Agencies in this country providing an extension of the services of the main Bureaux. The business links with private travel agencies in the principal cities and towns in Australia were strengthened and this form of representation is being extended gradually with mutually satisfactory results. Honorary Representatives in North America, South Africa, India, the Far East, and Fiji were accorded full support in their work of providing travel information and stimulating tourist traffic to New Zealand. There was active liaison in Britain between the Department's Travel Manager and travel agencies, international tourist organizations, and the British Travel Association. Fuller representation in North America is envisaged, and the initial appointment is planned to become effective after the middle of 1950. (A preliminary survey in the North American field was undertaken in the latter months of 1949, and is reported more particularly hereafter.) Work in North America has been largely of the preparatory kind but has already produced some results. (2) SALES The year has been marked by the provision of more plentiful supplies of necessary, •selling-material and the actual passenger-booking sales reported totalled £1,634,958' as •compared with £1,448,955 for the previous year. As before, the transactions covered specially planned independent travel, conducted and party tours, and a great number •of single and return journeys with and without inclusion of accommodation and sightseeing services. Some noteworthy special parties were dealt with and party tours -continued in strong demand. (3) OVERSEAS BUREAUX Australia Sydney.—The twelve months in review has proved the busiest on record at this Bureau. Sales increased by £19,911 over the previous year and were more than double the figures for 1939, the last " peak " year. Two major party tours of New Zealand (one consisting wholly of residents of New South Wales) were organized, and ten ethers with personnel from various States were operated in conjunction with the Melbourne Bureau over the period October to March. The variation in the exchange-rate whereby the Australian pound is at a discount -as compared with New Zealand did not make the difference to the volume of traffic which might have been expected. Shortage of hotel accommodation in New Zealand during the summer months and also lack of berths on the Tasman shipping lines probably was a deterrent to a proportion of business offering, but special arrangements made by the Department to honour all overseas bookings, including fairly late ones, during the busiest period, made it possible to " spread " incoming traffic very satisfactorily. Melbourne. —This Bureau reports a most successful period which was stimulating from the salesman's point of view in as much as many of the circumstances which frustrated efforts to sell New Zealand travel in the post-war years have now disappeared. The results of the year's work under these encouraging conditions, were a 35 per cent, increase in individual bookings and an increase in sales of 103 per cent, as compared with the previous twelve months. Increase for the year was £40,103. Melbourne, in common with Sydney, experienced no diminution in business that could be attributed to the adverse exchange-rate.

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