INADEQUATE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 138, 3 February 1932, Page 3

INADEQUATE

n.z. publicity LITTLE KNOWN ABOUT N.Z. ATTRACTIONS IN ENGLAND. WORLD TRAVELLER'S VIEWS. Two hundred and sixty thousand miles of sea travel and more than a tourist's knowledge of practically every country in the" world have been the enviable experience of Mr. S. W. Hassall, an English visitor who is at' present .in Rotorua on his fourth visit here. Mr. Hassall retired from business some years ago and since then has spent his time in world travel. As he explained it, to a "Post" representative yesterday, he looks for the by-ways'-more than the highways and seeks as far as possible to get off the beaten traek of the tourist routes. New Zealand, aceording to Mr. Hassall, is one of the most interesting countries he has visited in his travels, and he hopes to make many more visits to the Dominion. When he lands in the country, Mr. Hassall hires a car and goes off on a motor tour which takes him wherever fancy dictates. Mr. Hassall has just returned from a tour through the South Island sounds district and the lakes country of Southland and South Otago. Inadequate Publicity. As a result of his observations in many different countries of the world||mr. Hassall is firmly of the opinioWthat New Zealand has tourist attrac&ons second to those of no other country. Its variety and charm of scenery, together with the hospitality of its people, made travellers anxious to return and see more of it. At the | same time, however, Mr. Hassall expressed the opinion that particularly in England, New Zealand's publicity was very inadequate and was by no means eommensurate with the attractions which the country had to offer. Little, if anything, was heard of New Zealand at Home, he stated, but on the other hand, Australian publicity was proving much more effectiv'e. Among other thirigs, there appeared ot be an almost total absence of New Zealand news in the big English papers, while Australian news was usually well featured. His own impression was that newspaper and screen publicity was the most effeetive, yet in both of these directions, New Zealand appeared to be little advertised at Home. He thought that an intensive campaign of press publicity would do a great deal to popularise the country and would prove more effeetive than concentration upon the distribution of booklets and folders in the travel agencies. Effeetive Medium. It was admittedly a difficult matter to reach all of the English travelling public, because even to-day, it was a very small proportion of a population which in the mass preferred to stay at home. At the same time, he considered that newspapers with their universal circulation, and particularly in the direction of news items and artieles, would prove a most effeetive medium for attracting attention to this Dominion. This criticism of New Zealand publicity methods, Mr. Hassal stated, did not appear to apply to the same extent to Australia, where perhaps more by reason of its proximity, New Zealand appeared to he becoming increasingly well known. Personally, he found Tasmania the most attraetive part of the Commonwealth. Tasmanians were much more like New Zealanders in type and their attitude towards visitors, and the country was in many places very beautiful. Visitors to Australia, however, were very often in ignorance of the attractions which an extension of their trip to New Zealand had to offer, and only on his last voyage out he had heen asked by one tourist whether New Zealand was a part of Australia. Lake Scenery. One of the greatest charms of New Zealand, and particularly of the Rotorua district, was its lake scenery. The New Zealand lakes appeared to have a distinctive colouring and the remarkable clarity of the water, lent a great deal to their charm. The only lake rivalling them which he had seen on. his travels was the famous Lake Louise, near Banff, in Canada. High in the Rockies, this lake mirrored the snow covered surrounding peaks in water of a wonderful hluish green. Some. time ago, a competition had heen run in an English paper in which travellers had nominated what they considered the finest seenic sights in the world. Lake Louise and also the view from Mt. Wellington, in Tasmania, had heen popular choices, but so far as he could recollect, no New Zealand scenic features had heen mentioned. Shipping Competition. Mr. Hassall supported the views of another gentleman recently interviewed by the "Post," who expressed the opinion that a greater measure of shipping competition would he to the benefit of this Dominion. Many overseas countries obtained a great deal of valuable publicity fr.om the efforts of shipping companies to popularise their own lines, but the shipping companies interested in Sew Zealand did not appear to pursue this course. This was probably owing to the fact that the chief lines had not their head offices in England. While touehing on the shipping question, Mr. Hassall also mentioned that many Tasmanians who would otherwise visit New Zealand, were discouraged from doing so owing to the Commonwealth Navigation Act, which prevented direct passenger communication between Tasmania and New Zealand and forced travellers to proceed through Sydney with the consequent additional expense. Tourists appeared to he well looked after in New Zealand, Mr. Hassall stated, and although we had no very large or pretentious hotels. he had found that on the whole, travellers were very well catered for. So far as the more prententious type of hotel was concerned, it did not appear to be required in New Zealand, as the Dominion had not yet sufficient numbers of the very wealthy type of ^tourist to justify its erection. In this connection, he considered that the Chateau Tongariro venture was beyond the needs of the country and was likely to find matters very difficult.