Selling The Dream: Classic New Zealand Tourism Posters

Selling The Dream: Classic New Zealand Tourism Posters

By Peter Alsop

Published by New Holland

9781869664442

Paperback with flaps, $29.99

Now in a compact and affordable paperback format, this significant collection of vintage New Zealand tourism posters from 1920 to 1960 shows a glamorous destination for international visitors. In the heady days of early tourism, New Zealand was viewed as a wonderland of scenic beauty, with spectacular sport-fishing, unique Maori culture, diverse geography and ease of travel, with planes and trains transporting visitors all over the country.

The book was originally published in hardcover to celebrate the touring exhibition ‘Selling the Dream’ and features a foreword by the Director of Canterbury Museum.

The text provides fascinating glimpses into the thinking behind the marketing campaigns of the day, and the posters reveal a young colony growing in confidence and maturity, with signs of an emerging national identity. The imagery is some of the finest graphic art ever produced in New Zealand, as arresting and impressive today as when it was first created.

About the author:

Peter Alsop is a senior executive who has worked across public and private sectors during his career. He is a keen collector of New Zealand art, with a particular interest in tourism and mid-century landscape photography. He collaborated with Canterbury Museum to curate the collection of posters included in this book.