ENG-1961 — Page 117

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INDUSTRY AND TRADE

associations dealing with various aspects of the travel industry. An important feature of the work of this and other associations is the training of staff. Another development is the Tourist Association's assumption of the responsibility for registering qualified guides.

A major portion of the Association's budget is devoted to publicity, and approximately one million items of literature have been distributed to carefully selected agents and centres throughout the world. In spite of such large scale distribution the demand for promotional literature is invariably in excess of the supply. Useful publicity has been obtained for the Hong Kong tourist industry from the distribution of the Association's film 'A Million Lights Shall Glow'. It was shown in the largest cinemas in London, New York and elsewhere, and in November it was granted the top award of the American Society of Travel Agents International Film Festival held in Cannes. Additional valuable publicity was given to Hong Kong by a book of photographs of the same title, the production of which was sponsored by the Association, and by an attractive booklet containing four long-playing gramophone records entitled 'Sounds of Hong Kong'. This album of Hong Kong sounds aroused considerable interest in all the countries to which it was sent. In 1961 the Tourist Association commissioned the well-known New Zealand artist, Mr Peter McIntyre, to paint a series of pictures depicting Hong Kong. This collection has now toured many of the major cities of the United States and Canada, and by the end of 1961 was on exhibition in London.These pictures were well received and during 1962 will be sent to a number of other countries. A series of broadcasts about Hong Kong on the MONITOR programme in America has continued each week to a listening public which now numbers many millions.