Guide to Maori NZ in demand

By STUART DYE

Demand for a new travel guide to Maori New Zealand has "gone berserk".

About 300,000 copies of the Rough Guide mini-booklet have been snapped up at home and in Britain.

The guide, which explains Maori culture, the people and their special places, was distributed with 165,000 copies of the Daily Telegraph newspaper in London and a further 47,000 went out with copies of British travel magazine Wanderlust this week.

Thousands of copies were also being handed out at London's Chelsea Flower Show, attended by nearly 160,000 people.

Peter Kitchen, chairman of the Tai Tokerau Maori and Cultural Tourism Association, said copies were already hard to come by.

"It's gone berserk - we've already started talking about a reprint."

Rough Guide chief executive Kevin Fitzgerald said interest in New Zealand among Britons generally was intense.

The Rough Guide to Maori New Zealand was put together by Tourism New Zealand, with the National Maori Tourism Network, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, Air New Zealand and Tailor Made Travel (UK).

The book features legends and history as well as practical information about marae protocol and the haka.

Tourism New Zealand chairman Wally Stone said Maori culture was a point of difference for New Zealand in the competitive world tourism market.

"The UK is our third largest source of visitors, combined with the fact that we know our target market has a strong interest in Maori culture," he said.

Mr Stone said the release of the book in the UK was timely. New Zealand awareness was very high after Tourism New Zealand's garden won gold at the Chelsea Flower Show.