By SIMON HENDERY
New Zealand's largest tourist company, Tourism Holdings, is upgrading its Australian and New Zealand campervan fleet in a deal that has created 15 new jobs at an Otorohanga engineering company.
Tourism Holdings is standardising its 4000 Maui and Britz campervans in both countries, replacing old vehicles with a Mercedes
model it believes will appeal to European tourists.
The bodies for the first 325 campervans are being assembled by its engineering subsidiary CI Munro in Otorohanga.
The four- and six-sleeper van bodies will be attached to 2.2-litre diesel Mercedes cabs and chassis.
Executive director Chris Alpe said the company wanted to replace its "league of nations" fleet with a single make.
"We've been looking for a product that is going to meet the expectations of the customer and also our own expectations as far as maintenance goes.
"We've come up with what we think is the ideal solution to that, and that's the Mercedes vehicle."
Ernie Ward, the managing director of DaimlerChrysler New Zealand, Mercedes-Benz' parent company, said European tourists, especially Germans, appreciated the familiarity of the vehicles.
"The one thing they love is driving Mercedes with anti-lock brakes and power steering.
"This is what this vehicle offers so it makes it more attractive from a tourist point-of-view."
Tourism Holdings expects to contract DaimlerChrysler to supply a further 450 vehicles next year.
The general manager of CI Munro, Dean Reid, said more job opportunities were likely.
The Mayor of Otorohanga, Eric Tait, said CI Munro's growth was good news for the South Waikato town, which has a population of 3000.
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