NOT ENOUGH SPENT ON OUR PUBLICITY TO BRING AMERICANS

Taupo Times, Volume VI, Issue 288, 15 August 1957, Page 6

NOT ENOUGH SPENT ON OUR PUBLICITY TO BRING AMERICANS

THE importanee of tourism tc New Zealand — New Zealanders had not yet realised it — and the need for more money to be spent on oversea publicity, were emphasised by Sir William Bodkin, Government director of the New Zealand Travel and Holidays Association, in an address at the Memorial Hall on Tuesday night. The Mayor, Mr J. E. Story, presided.

It liad to be recognised, Sir William said, tliat tourism was oue of the best and most profitable means of earning oversea s exchange. Oue of the first coimtries to recognise that was the lnited Kingdom. She and Germany, France. Spain, Italy and Japan were earning more dollars from it than any others. Wlien he was Minister of Internal Affairs in 1952, he found that New Zealand was earning only £1} miilion, whereas South Africa took 17 miilion dollars, and in 1956 19 miilion dollars. "RADICALLY WRONG" "It seems to me there was soinething radically wrong with our approaclv" he said. "No country in tlie world has a greater variety of tourist attraetioiis, yet we do not get our sliare of the dollar exchange." Last year the Tourist Department vote was cut by £50,000, but "there wasn't an individual or organisation in this country wliicli so mucli as blinked an eyelid." V It happened because ihe weight of public opinion was not feehind the. department, he said. Yet tourisip could be oue of the Dominion's .. best'. e.xcfeange-e^rners ; it was almost the big'gest industry in the world. TJtipugh 100,000 Amerieans travelled in the- Pacific area in 1956, New Zealand received only about 4000 of them. "Doesn't that suggest that something is radically wrong V" he asked. Japan, on the other |band, last year reported 120,000 overseas visitors, 35,000 of thein from the ITnited States, ari ineiease of 18 per cent. over the previous year. - SptME PROGRESS New Zealand was makirig some progress/ due totthe drive of those beliind the New Zealand Travel and Holidays Asoebuion, but it needed further public support and belief in tourism, »••) tliat the Dominion should get its due. There were liitmberless ways in wliich adequate publicity in America could attract Amerieans in many walks of lif'e to visit this country. If public opinion was sufficiently strong, the Tourist and Health Resorts vote would be increased to the point ndeessary to the expansion of our oversea publicity. New Zealand tourism could then come into its own, he said. It was of particular interest to Taupo, whieh had a variety of attractions for the tourist — - fishing, the geothermal projects, moimtains, thermal baths, and proximity to many places of interest. "The lmlk of the Tourist vote should he spent upon advertising, to bring people to New Zealand," he said. He urged his listeners to support tlie association in its drive. Sir William was accorded a vote of tlianks 011 the motion of Mr A. II. O'Keefe, County Commissioner.