Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1937. THE TOURIST TRADE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 210, 5 August 1937, Page 8

Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1937. THE TOURIST TRADE.

If hopes based on convincing indications are realised the Dominion, in the coming summer, will enjoy one of the most successful tourist seasons in its history. The substantial evidence of heavy bookings by shipping lines, not only for cruises from Australia but for visits by tourists from farther afield, brings home the fact that New Zealand can not only lay claim to being an attraction of the first water—but to realise the benefits accruing from the tourist trade she must cultivate more-, consciously the “welcoming psychology.’ ’ After all—considering the matter from the lucrative aspect alone—it is the most gratuitous trade- in the world, untrammelled by quotas, unharried by the encumbrances of reciprocal agreements, the freest, most pleasant, and most profitable commerce possible. The Dominion has a “product” the world is willing to pay generously to share in its inimitable alpine, bush, and lake scenery; from the aesthetic point of view, and not impossibly in the wider interest of friendly relations with other peoples, the value of fostering the business is patent. Wonderfully endowed by Nature to enable us to play the host to an increasing number of visitors, perhaps our greatest need -is to realise our ability to fill the role to their satisfaction. During last summer New 21ealand was toured by Captain England, one of the world’s most travelled men and himself the director of a travel agency. He included Palmerston North in his itinerary, and while here stressed in an interview with the “Standard” that the Dominion possesses scenery second to none and a travel and accommodation service with which no reasonable tourist could find fault. The burden of his message was that our greatest need is to awaken to a realisation of our own capacities. That the tourist trade is “big business” has been borne out in Canada in recent years. The expenditure of tourists in the senior Dominion reached its peak in 1929 with 309 million dollars ; it fell to 117 millions in 1933, the worst year of the depression. In 1936 it rose steadily to 256 millions, and this year is confidently expected to set a new record. After deducting nearly 100 million dollars which Canadian citizens spent abroad in 1936 there was\a balance of tourist trade in favour of the country of 156 million dollars'. The United States, of course, contributes largely to Canada’s harvest, and tourists entering by car on permits last year are estimated to have spent nearly 160 million dollars. The value to the Dominion of this costless commerce is realised when it -is declared that last year’s turnover of 25(? million

dollars vras about 100 millions in excess of the gross value of the products of Canada’s largest industry, pulp and paper. The Coronation, in May of this year, has stimulated the tourist trade in the Northern Hemisphere, and England has reaped a inch reward, but discerning persons have pointed out* that a reflex is inevitable—there will probably be an unexampled “invasion” by tourists who, rather than again visit Europe so soon after the Coronation, will turn their eyes to the South Pacific and the Dominion. The fascination of our geographical situation is undeniable, and we would seem to be not only doing ourselves a very good turn, but also satisfying an eager demand to share our charms by realising the singularly happy position in which we are placed in this respect and expressing the realisation in a cordial welcome to the traveller from overseas. Dr Boyd, the eminent English educationalist, has told us we are “intelligent but dull”—perhaps it could be more euphemistically phrased by suggesting that we have still to realise how very important is the role we must play not only in Pacific and Empire affairs, but in the wide, field of world relations; the practice the tourist can afford us we would do well not to ignore.