Tourism champion passes away

Posted by travel memo on 10 January 2012 | 0 Comments

Tags: Neville Lobb, Tauranga, National Travel Association

Neville Lobb, one of New Zealand’s pioneer tourism boosters, died in Tauranga on 22DEC, aged 91. Founder of Rotorua’s famed Polynesia Spa
attraction, Mr Lobb was the first person to head the National Travel Association, forerunner to the Travel Industry Federation.

He held the role of Managing Organiser for 20 years from 1953, coordinating the activities of the association’s branches around the country. According to a 2003 edition of Nigel Coventry’s Inside Tourism looking back on 50 years of tourism industry promotion, the early membership of what are today’s RTOs comprised representatives from banks, oil companies, motor coach operators and brewers. This was at a time when virtually all of
New Zealand’s main tourism infrastructure – air, rail and road services, hotels and key attractions – as well as its distribution via the NZ Govt Tourist Bureaux, and also foreign exchange, was totally under government control.

Neville Lobb was also heavily involved in PATA, which played an important role in developing New Zealand tourism.