PUBLICITY WANTED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 2, 4 January 1939, Page 7

PUBLICITY WANTED

NEW ZEALAND IN U.S. A.

TOURISTS' VIEWS

WAITOMO PRAISED

"New Zealand's remarkable^ scenic attractions deserve much more publicity in the United States than they are receiving at present," said Mr. T. D. Blake, of San Francisco, who sailed by the Awatea yesterday after twelve days spent in the N&rth Island. He is accompanied by his wife and his mother.

"Now is a golden opportunity for a publicity campaign to be- undertaken," he added. "The war between Japan and China has virtually closed one of the most popular travel routes from the United States, and, judging by the statement in this morning's paper, it looks as though South America will also be ruled out for some time to come. With important competitors out of action at the moment, New Zealand and Australia have a unique opportunity to'make their respective-attrac-tions better known."

Mr. Blake suggested that the mos'. effective means New Zealand coula adopt to attract residents of the United States would be vto arrange for the various travel agencies to offer New Zealand tours to their clients. Most American people who wanted to go on a world tour went to a travel agency and asked for an itinerary to be arranged, and it rested largely with the agency what itinerary was chosen. At present New Zealand seemed to occur to them only as an after-thought.

"For instance, we had originally planned to go to China," said Mr. Blake, "but when we arrived at Honolulu we found that all passengers travelling on a ship touching at a China port had to be inoculated against cholera. Cholera inoculation makes some people violently ill, and rather than run the risk of that, we decided to cable the travel agency through which we had booked and ask what alternative they had to offer. They replied that we could have twelve days in New Zealand or about the same time in Australia. We chose New Zealand purely by chance. SOUTH ISLAND OMITTED. "The Waitomo glow-worm cave was simply wonderful, and to my mind it would have been worth the trip to see that alone. There is nothing on God's earth like it. We saw it on Christmas Eve, and it was simply wonderful." Mr. Blake said that after talking with other travellers he had met in New Zealand, he was disappointed that he was not seeing something of the South Island. He did not know why the Tourist Department had confined his itinerary to the North Island, but presumed it was because of the short time he had available. The absence of slums, evidence on all sides of a very high standard of living, and the neatness of farm lands through which he passed on his way from Napier to Wellington were other features of New Zealand that have impressed themselves on Mr. Blake. He considers that the stage of development reached by New Zealand in scarcely a century of white settlement is remarkable. All three members of the party like Wellington better than Auckland. They were taken on a motor tour of Wellington's bays yesterday, and think them much more beautiful than the surroundings of the northern city. The price of real estate and the high level of rents in Wellington have surprised Mr.. Blake, whose experience of banking and insurance has placed him in close contact with the property market in his own country. He said that friends, he was with yesterday pointed him out a house in a Welling-* ton suburb that had been offered to them for £1800. "That is round about 8000 dollars," he said, "and you would get a mighty fine home for that money in San Francisco." Rents, particularly flat rents, are, in Mr. Blake's opinion, considerably higher than the cost of similar premises in America. HOTEL ACCOMMODATION. The service giyeh by the New Zealand Government Tourist Department was highly praised by Mr. Blake, who said he had just written a letter to the officer with whom he had dealt complimenting the officer and the Der partment on what they had done for his party. As far as he could gather, the cost of travel in .New Zealand was about the same as the cost of similar class travel in America; the hotels were comfortable and the service good. . If there was one constructive criticism he would like to make it was that travel facilities offered by service cars was much better from the overseas' visitors' point of view than rail travel. "You get on the train 'cold' and you get off 'cold,' if you understand my meaning," he said, "but on the service cars it is altogether different. The drivers seem to know everything abouts points of interest encountered on the route, sind if there is a question they can't answer off-hand they take the trouble to find out. They are also prepared to stop to enable travellers to examine closely any item of special interest. The train journey would be greatly improved if there was someone to explain to overseas visitors what they were seeing as they went along." Mesdames Blake, senior and junior, also speak enthusiastically about New Zealand scenery, and said they had thoroughly enjoyed their short stay in this country. They are now looking forward to arriving in Sydney and being given an opportunity to hug a koala bear.