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Official Guide to the Government Court: N.Z. Centennial Exhibition

Tourist & Publicity Department

Tourist & Publicity Department

The Tourist Department deals with every detail necessary in the arrangement of travel. In addition, it operates and controls the leading tourist resorts of the Dominion, which include the Chateau in Tongariro National Park; the Waitomo Caves; the great health Spa at Rotorua; Te Aroha; Lake House, Waikaremoana; Lake Te Anau Hotel; the famous Milford Track, and Milford Hotel in Fiordland in the southern end of the South Island. It also has interests in most of the other resorts. The Department, which has its Head Office in the Government Life Insurance Buildings, Wellington, has Tourist Bureaux established in each of the main cities of the Dominion, with agency offices in various other centres. In these Bureaux and agency offices, tours are mapped out for travellers, all arrangements for reserved seats are made, and accommodation is booked at hotels in advance of departure, so that the traveller has everything done for him prior to setting out on his journey.

Under the title of Department of Tourist and Health Resorts, the Department was established by the late Sir J. G. Ward in 1901, for the purpose of better development of the various scenic and health resorts, the improvement of means of access, and the advertising abroad of New Zealand's attractions to the traveller, the invalid and the sportsman.

Originally, the Department merely gave advice in the matter of where to go and how to get there. The next development was in 1911, when it became expedient to institute a comprehensive booking system, and this now functions in most expeditious form from all the Department's own Bureaux at Auckland, Wellington, Christ-church, Dunedin and Invercargill. The system includes the provision of both standard fixed itineraries, and also of itineraries to suit individual requirements; the costing of these and issue of tickets covering all forms of transport; booking of seats, berths and accommodation; meeting of incoming passenger liners; supervision of baggage transference to hotels, etc. These services are also available as regards itineraries, etc. The Department has its own branches in London (where two officers are stationed at the High Commissioner's Office), at Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto and Los Angeles, although the latter does not issue tickets.

In addition to the Bureaux and overseas offices mentioned, the Department has appointed agents in the following New Zealand cities and towns: Greymouth, Nelson, Hamilton, Napier, Hastings, Gisborne, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Wanganui, Masterton, Dannevirke and Timaru. All these offices also sell tours, while the Department's'district office at Rotorua and the managers of its hotels provide similar facilities.

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Overseas, the Department has honorary agents at Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Johannesburg, Durban, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tientsin, Colombo, Calcutta, Bombay, Rangoon and Fiji. All the large overseas travel firms act as agents for the Department, which also has some 70 sub-agents throughout Australia, besides others in different parts of the world.

In order to bring the attractions of the Dominion to the notice of potential visitors, it is, of course, necessary to utilise all the various forms of publicity media, such as booklets, films, slides, photographs, newspaper advertising and articles, radio talks, lectures, window displays, displays at exhibitions, etc. The provision of material for the above is the function of the Publicity side of the Department. In the past 10 months over half a million copies of about a dozen different booklets have been distributed, either to intending or actual visitors, on ships, or to various bureaux and agents throughout the world. Since sound films came in, about 36 scenic films have been made, and copies to the number of several hundred have been printed and placed on theatre circuits all over the world, while many shipping lines have been supplied for the entertainment of passengers. This work is now done by the Department's own studios, which also supply photographic prints, posters, dioramas and other materials, in very large quantities.

The small 16 mm. films for private screening, use of lecturers, etc., are very popular, and over 1400 copies have been made in the past five years.

Advertising campaigns have been undertaken, particularly in Australia, America and Great Britain, with considerable success, but limitation of funds prevents full exploitation of this excellent but comparatively expensive medium which, to be fully successful, requires to be consistent. Space has been taken at many exhibitions overseas and the quality of the exhibits, which usually include samples of manufactures, has drawn many eulogies.

Window displays are arranged in conjunction with travel firms, and photographs, maps, Maori curios, dioramas, as well as manufactures, are utilised to attract attention.

There are numerous honorary lecturers in every part of the world, and the supply of films, booklets, photographs, lectures and other material for them is a large item in the business of the Department.