ROTORUA'S FUTURE AS TOURIST RESORT

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5330, 17 February 1947, Page 3

ROTORUA'S FUTURE AS TOURIST RESORT

' "A WASTING ASSET" CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF TOWN'S AMENITIES t To its inhabitants, Rotorua is an eminently pleasant place to live in. To yisitors from other parts of New Zealand, ,it is capable of providing a remarkably attractive boliday. To ov^rseas tourists, it is a place whose fascinations, for tbe most part, triumph over its severe drawbacks. This raises the question of whether Rotorua, as a tourist resort, is or is not a wasting asset to New Zealand. writes George Bourne in a forthright article in the New Zealand Observer. When questioned about their impressions o'f Rotorua, visitors who have been there recently after a fairly long inteiwal seem to proffer a remarkably standardised reply: uOh, it's just the same as ever." It is not, of course, just the same as ever, but the differences are significantly few. And there iies the danger lo what should be a lively, fiourishing tourist resort. Accoipmodation iDeficiency After a criticism of the roads in the reform, the writer goes on to say that estimates made recently indicate that at least twice as many visitors as could be accommodated were oft'ering this hcliday season. That is putting it conservatively, for other estimates put the figure at four times as many. When overseas tourists really start to flow in, conditions will be quite impossible for them. If the present influx is beyond the capacity of the town, what of the future? The answer is depressingly clear. This might not be so bad if there were any large-scale plans for the future which awaited only more favourable conditions to be put in hand. But there is no evidence whatever that any such thing is envisaged. The Governmenl Tourist Office, which might be expected to be a hive of activity, or at least of a brisk, go-ahead character, is exactly the reverse. It is located in a dingy, out-of-the-way buildings and a good part of the function it should serve is carried out by the road transport terniinal, whcse facilities are no better. This is one contradiction. Another lies in the swimming poois. The Blue and Ward'Baths are as good as ever, though they still attract plenty of complaints. But thev are not cold water pools. As far as the latter is concerned, Lake Rotorua is available. But are there any dressing or shower facilities at the lake's edge? Only at Sulphur Point, at the far end of the nine-hole Motutara golf" course, is there one small shed for dressing purposes. And there lias been no attempt to put this particular part of the lake's edge into shape for comfortable swimming. Fate of Orakei Korako Bedevilled by lack of accommodation, hamstrung by shoeking roads, Avanting in up-to-date shops, outward tidiness, some sort of night-life for visitors, with diminishing thermal activity, and above all needing a very large lump of capital (Government, municipal and private) to be spent on it, Rotorua appears to be dangerously close to becoming a wasting national asset. New Zealand's most spectacular thermal activity, of course, is Iargely out of Rotorua. Orakei Korako, obviously, is infinitely finer than Whakarewarewa, Tikitere and the rest, and is rivalled oniy by Wairakei — which in turn ir. 50 miles from Rotorua.

And now Orakei Korako's days are numbered because of the extension of the Government's hydro-electrie schemcs. It is within fairly easy reach of Rotorua, and is certainly one oi its. finest adjacent attractions. The ■threat to obliterate it is utterly deplcrable. With Orakei Korako virtually blotted out,' and thermal activity diminishing at Whakarewarewa, the outlook for this seetor of Rotorua's attractions is anything but bright. It will still be fascinating, but much less sc. There remain scenic attractions, which are not being improved by del'orestation and indiscriminate erection of motor-camps in beauty spots; and fishing, which, after all, is not uniqua to Rotorua. The picture, in fact, is not bright, and only energetic measures will preserve Rotorua's present tourist attractions, let alone expand and improve them to the extent required if the area is to take its rightful place as a first-elass international tourist centre.