Tourist Care Appreciated

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30962, 19 January 1966, Page 2

Tourist Care Appreciated

The care and attention given tourists by the Government Tourist Bureau has been praised by an Australian girl, Miss Beverley McCowan, who is visiting Christchurch.

Miss McCowan, a private secretary to a Melbourne architect, said she had travelled wide’.;* in Europe, Scandinavia, India. Africa, the Middle East and Australia. New Zealand was the only country where a Government organisation showed concern for an ordinary tourist. On the Continent; the amount of money a tourist had to spend determined the service given. “I’ve been treated as though 1 owned the earth in New Zealand,” she said.

Miss McCowan arrived in Auckland on December 26. “The plane was late, but even at that hour—about 11 p.m. —I was met by a girl from the bureau and handed my itinerary and a packet containing useful information, aspirin, and stocking-mending equipment, “They had even arranged for a taxi, which was to have collected me from the city terminal, to be at the airport. This has never happened to me in any other country,” she said. The service did not end there. Miss McCowan arrived at her hotel about midnight and found a receptionist waiting for her. In the morning the proprietress welcomed her and asked if she could help in any way. “I felt as though I really belonged in New Zealand," she said. “Overseas, they couldn't care less about you.”

Miss McCowan’s itinerary was planned by the bureau, and she had nothing but

praise for the way her trip was handled. “I liked the planned itinerary and the way taxis appeared on time to take me to various points. At home, taxis often fail to turn up,” she said. Another factor which impressed Miss McCowan was the prompt way she was given refunds on unused tickets. “New Zealand is the ideal place for tourist care. You need have no qualms about sending youngsters here. You know they will be safe and

well looked after,” she said. She found that she was undercharged rather than overcharged. While in Christchurch she wanted to buy five colour slid*"!, but discovered she had money for only four. “The waitress insisted I have the five and paid for the other herself out of a tip she had been given.” This was just one example of the kindness and friendliness of New Zealand people. But she had experienced some rudeness and brushed it aside as being not typical.

Miss McCowan said the Australian Government tourist offices could take a lesson from those of New Zealand. There was a vast contrast between New Zealand tourist treatment and that of France. “France does depend on tourists, but I found that the French were not prepared to put themselves out to help,” she said.