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Story: Tourist industry

Tourist Bureau poster

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Tourist Bureau poster

This 1936 Tourist Bureau poster shows a well-dressed woman calling a suited employee of the Government Tourist Bureau to book a tour. A tour of the country like this was only affordable for people of means in the 1930s. The age of mass tourism was still decades away.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: Eph-A-TOURISM-1936-01-front

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Margaret McClure, Tourist industry – Tourism in the Southern Alps, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/ephemera/23181/tourist-bureau-poster (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Margaret McClure, published 2 March 2010.