PUBLICITY WANTED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 43, 21 February 1939, Page 8

PUBLICITY WANTED

NEW ZEALAND IN U.S.A. TOURISTS’ VIEWS. WAITOMO PRAISED. “New Zealand’s remarkable scenic attractions deserve much more publicity in the United States than they are receiving at present,” said Mr. T. D. Blake, of San Francisco, who spent twelve days in the North Island recently. He was accompanied by his wife and h is mother. “Now is a golden opportunity for a publicity campaign to be undertaken,” he added. “The war between Japan and China has virtually closed one of the most popular travel routes from the United States, and, judging by the statements in the papers it looks as though South America will be also ruled out for some time to come. With important competitors out of action at the moment, New Zealand and Australia have a unique opportunity to make their respective attractions better known.”

Mr. Blake suggested that the most effective means New Zealand, could adopt to attract residents of the United States would be to arrange for the various travel agencies to offer New Zealand tours to their clients. Most American people who wanted to go on a world tour went to a travel agency and asked for an itinerary to be arranged, and it rested largely with the agency what itinerary was chosen. At present New Zealand seemed to occur to them only as an after-thought.

“For instance, we had originally planned to go to China,” said Mr. Blake, “but when we arrived at Honolulu we found that all passengers travelling on a ship touching at a China port had to be inoculated against cholera. Cholera inoculation makes some people violently ill, and rather than run the risk of that, we decided to cable the travel agency through which we had booked and ask what alternative they had to offer. They replied that we could have twelve days in New Zealand or about the same time in Australia. We choose New Zealand purely by chance.”