Promoting tourism overseas

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 1, Issue 42, 10 April 1984, Page 13

Promoting tourism overseas

Andreas Hefti, who is director of the Turoa International Sports School and operates an information centre in Ohakune, has recently returned from a promotional trip to Korea and Japan. He was away for a total of 17 days and flew first to South Korea's capital, Seoul, where he spent eight days assessing. the tourist potential and meeting people from the Korean Skiing Association. Andreas Hefti estimaites that Korea has about the same number of skiers as New Zealand — about 50,000-60,000 — some of whom are keen to ski all year round and are looking for southern hemisphere skifields during their off-season. If some of these skiers can be encouraged to come to New Zealand, he said, the ^^ng-term tourist potential ^ror the skiing industry in this country is great. The Koreans are a very sports conscious and competitive nation — they are staging the Asian Games in 1986 and the Summer Olympics in 1988. Mr Hefti has arranged to host 24 Korean skiers in New Zealand during the coming '84 ski season. They will be attending his Turoa International Sports School in Ohakune but, during their 3-week stay, will probably also sample the South Island skifields as well as Turoa and Whakapapa. While in Korea Andreas Hefti, who was formerly a coach with the Swiss tpipic ski team and has d in many parts of the world, skied for the first time in Korea when he

visited Dragon Valley on the eastern side of the Korean peninsula. The skifield was not a very high one — from 700/ 800m up to about 1400m — but adequate snow was provided by the colder Korean climate and Dragon Valley had five double chairlifts as well as smaller tows. He noted that while the cost of using the facilities in Korea was quite reasonable the price of ski gear and equipment — all of which is imported — is prohibitively high . A good pair of skis for instance, which would cost about $450 in New Zealand, sell for the equivalent of SNZ1200 (or SUS800) in Korea. From Seoul Andreas flew to Tokyo and then to Sapporo in Japan's Hokkaido Island where the 1972 Winter Olympics were held. He spent three days in Sapporo. While in Japan he also travelled to the Japanese Junior Ski Championships at Iwakura (about 5 hours drive from Tokyo) and saw New Zealander, Marcus Hubrich of Wellington — who often skis on Turoa and Whakapapa — beat all competitors in the South Pacific Alpine competition. Andreas feels that Marcus Hubrich's win is also good for New Zealand's tourist potential in Japan ... the Japanese skiers will want to come here to train on these competition-winning skifields. While overseas Andreas received V.I.P. treatment everywhere he went ... they don't see very many ski promoters from New Zealand in Korea!