ATTRACTING TOURISTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1067, 3 September 1930, Page 10

ATTRACTING TOURISTS

IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED, SAYS CRITIC DOMINION’S SHORTCOMINGS “If the New Zealand authorities wish to develop the tourist trade, they must find out what people have a right to expect, judged from the standards in other countries.” , This statement is made by Mr. Will J. French, formerly of New Zealand, and now of San Francisco, in a letter to the New Zealand Tourist League, in which he details some of the arrangements made at the formation in San Francisco of a Pacific Tourist Association. Mr. French represented the Dominion at the conference, and forwarded an account of some of his remarks to New Zealand. “NOT VERY ALLURING” “After minutely referring to the main scenic attractions of New Zealand, I said that I believed the New Zealand Government would want to improve some of the accommodation now available for travellers,” he writes. “Rerefence was made to the long and beautiful journey down the Wanganui River, and I must confess that I did not describe the little boat I travelled on in a very alluring way. However, this is simply the truth, and New Zealand, through its Government, or through some other means, must expect to give adequate hotel accommodation, and provide some of the comforts which people in other countries have these days as a matter of course. "I could have mentioned a journey I took from Dunedin to Invercargill one Saturday afternoon in 1925 which will linger in my memory as long as I think of trains. I never had such a deplorable travelling experience in my life. “I am not saying these things in criticism, but I do want to point out most emphatically that the New Zealand authorities must find out what other people have a right to expect if the tourist trade is to be developed. I know a man and his wife who live in California who visited New Zealand recently. A short time after leaving Christchurch in a train, the good woman threw up her hands, and insisted on being taken back to San Francisco. This ought not to be the case, seeing what New Zealand has to offer.”