Guide unfairly picked on, rules ASA

A tourist who felt “misled” and disappointed by Picton’s visitor guide has laid an unsuccessful complaint against the booklet’s authors.

Picton’s weather, water quality, tourist attractions and popularity amongst New Zealanders were all successfully defended against the complaint made to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in February.

In his complaint, Peter Chapman took issue with several claims made in the Visit Picton tourist guide, saying it was “riddled with errors”.

The ASA did not agree and the complaint was not upheld.

Among Chapman’s complaints was a reference to the Queen Charlotte Track being 71km long not 70km long as stated in the guide, and the Edwin Fox not being the world’s oldest merchant ship but “simply the hulk/hull of a wooden sailing vessel”.

Chapman also claimed it was misleading to say Picton is fast becoming “a firm favourite with New Zealanders” and has “some of the best weather in New Zealand” and “New Zealand’s most beautiful water environment”.

Chapman said having taken his “avid old-ship enthusiast” friends from Brisbane to the historic Edwin Fox ship, they were left sorely disappointed.

“We were misled and underwhelmed. The Edwin Fox is . . . a nice small maritime museum in a mock English building . . . with the partial hull of a wooden ship in a dry dock nearby,” he wrote. “The situation must be put right”.

The ASA complaint was not upheld as the authority agreed the Visit Picton guide was not misleading and claims made by the guide’s creators were substantiated.