WEALTH FROM TOURISTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 505, 7 November 1928, Page 6

WEALTH FROM TOURISTS

HOW TO GET £5,000,000 A YEAR CALIFORNIA’S EXAMPLE If New Zealand increased its tourists from a meagre 9,000 a year to 50,000, it would mean a national income of £5,000,000 a year, according to an Auckland resident who is enthusiastic about the possibilities. The country, with its magnificent tourist attractions, ought to be able to run itself on the income from the “tourist crop.” The borrowing of millions would be unnecessary, and depression would be a thing of the past for most of the population. In 1924 Canada reversed an unfav- , ourable trade balance and improved the value of her dollar to above par by the income from the ..ale of peeps at the splendours of the country, he >ays. Some remarkable figures as to the productivity of the tourist crop have just been issued by the “All-the-Ycar-Round-Club” of California. From the figures it is clear that while the oil industry brought in 170,000,000 dollars, the tourist business was second with 160,000,000 dollars (most of this tourist income is new money.) The moving picture industry was next with 132,000,000 dollars. Analysis of the spending of the thousands who flock annually to California shows that 23.5 per cent, of the money goes to retail stores; 21 per cent, to hotels; 15 per cent, to restaurants; 9.5 per pent, to theatres; 16 per cent tx> wholesalers and manufacturers, and 15 per cent, to other businesses. Even out of the 21 per cent, that passes to hotels more than 25 per cent, goes in wages, and nearly as much in the purchase of foodstuffs. The stream of tourists into California increased 500 per cent, in the period from 1921 to 1927, the rapidly swelling volume being due directly to definitely aimed campaigns on a nationwide scale. The appeal in all the publicity was to people who could afford to gratify their whims for pleasure. The strictly job-seeking person was not encouraged. ONLY 9,000 VISITORS “New Zealand has a paltry 9,000 visitors a year. Most of the number come from Australia. They are welcome, for they live much after our own style, and easily accommodate themselves to our transport and other conditions, and they are free spenders. If we consider that each person coming to admire our beautiful land is

worth only £IOO in cash distributed, it means that we get nearly £1,000,000 now, and that if we increased our visiting list to 19,000 we would have another £1,000,000 to play with, all of it new money; ajid if we set out to get 50,000 tourists a year, and we could get them by employing trained men and modern methods, we would have a national income of £5,000,000. “Yet with a handful of political parties and a couple of hundred aspiring politicians, no one has time to examine the subject or see that we can be a nation of well-off folk, simply by selling glimpses of our national glories of sea and sky and river and mountain,” he says. .