TOURISTS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20026, 6 September 1930, Page 13

TOURISTS.

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(S?ECUU, WBtTTEH *>B THE PBES3.)

[By Cyrano.]

on^tho ll^ll^ 111112 sideli Sht was thrown other I v , rißt bU3iness of Paris «>• sued an W en a Q ue en of the Apachns for n aeency for money due to her manCes in low haunts to which tonrcfw-. j'fi. ® on^uc ted. Organised tound the Bohemia of Montmartre "e a feature of "tourism" in Paris. s ors go in charabancs from one cafe or ance hall to another, and when they re .urn to Oskalooska or Taumarunui, ten tales—sometimes embroidered, no 011 t of the alluring wickedness they saw there. Four years ago, when the ranc was down to a penny, there were demonstrations against this exploitation of Parisian naughtiness. This kind of sig it seeing, plus the flaunting of tourist wealth in the face of a very sick Y aß , rat i ler more than Parisians tw *!! '. ,ias lon S been kn own that there is a good deal of humbug about these "haunts of vice." and this recent case is proof in point. The Vjuoen, who was roally a variel v artist, would cover the. tourists with abuse i "? n a PP ear ed, announced that it was his eighty-second birthday, and persuaded the lady to sing some songs. He had a birthday every night, but tourists are birds of passage, and apparently the little deception was not discovered. Nor will the exposure of make any or rituch difference to the business as a whole. Apaches. Mimis and Undolphos, will continue to disport themselves for the benefit of Hit ° think thev are seeing life. Ihe economic aspect of this little comedy is worth some study. As "The Fifties' remarks, the vandalism of previous generations towards relics of the past is now checked, and there is much realisation of_ the cash value of local neculiarities_ in dress and habit. At the same time civilisation tends to eliminate manv local and racial peculiarities. The Chinese and Japanese, for example, discard their picturesque draperies and walk about in the ugly tube-like clothe l !, of the West. It is sometimes _ necessary, thorefore. to make special arrangements for preserving local colour. In certain places it has been found that if Westernisation goes too far these will be cut out of the itinerary of pleasure cruises, so a portion of the population is instructed to remain rs it wna. In parts of Western America patches of the traditional Wild West are preserved for the entertainment of tourists. The novelists, of course, have never admitted that the Wild West has disappeared. The same sort of thing is fioinp; on in New Zealand. A Maori guide may don a native mat to show a visitor round the sights, which sh* does in faultless Fnglish, but one presumes she removes it when she goes hom« to get the tea. We have not gone the length, so far as 1 know, of supplying Maori garments and curios from our factories, but perhaps that will come. Birmingha n, it is said, makes quite a lot of the articles that unsuspecting tourists buy in the East. The tourist lifts long been a figure of fun. and always will be. The very word "tourist 1 ' has come to have an uncomplimentary meaning. Many tieople associate tt with loud-voiced and often inconsiderate travellers who rush from place to place, see everything. and take m nothing. "Did we pro to Heme, Momma P" says "Punch's" American girl in London. "Oh. ves that was the place where we bought the lisle thread stockings. A few vears ago "Punch" depicted a Highland laird and his gillie looking at two kilted strangers in the distance. "Whr> are those men, Donald. dresseU tourista?" In "Dodsworth Mr Sinclair Lewis writes almost savagely of the people who travel year after vear. round and ronnd the world. What benefit <lo they get out of it, he asks? It might be asked in reply what greater benefit they would get by staying at home. It is a truism that you get out ot travel what yon take to it. and stupid people will get little more out of travel than out of life generally. Yet there is always the possibility that contact with the wind of a strange world will shake a reef out of their sails. There are manv who would prefer that this class should stay at home. It is complained that the imperfectly equipoed tonrist vulgarises the world He crowds resorts; induces his hosts to furnish him with sham antiques of all shades and sines ("Ye Olde Thisse and Thntte," as Mr Thomas Burke remarks in "The English Inn"); imposes his own inferior habits and customs on other societies; and corrupts good manners. Over Paris he has ca6t his rubbers, and Stratford-on-Avon, where even the ash-travs are decorated W'th Shakespeare's features, ha* become his wash-pot. Superior people hate him and try to avoid him. They try to go further afield everv year, looking for unfrequented places, but he pursues them with penetrating speech and eruptive clothes. The baffled ones console themselves by congregating and saying just what they think of him. Tliey t>ask .in the glow of moral and aesthetic superiority. , But such basking is dangerous. The superior person is often a tonrist himself Indeed, if one travels for pleasure one cannot help being a tourist and mixing with the crowd. The natural disoosition is to think of oneself as different from others, as a traveller rather than a tripper or a tourist, just as the .definition of a bounder is one who behaves differently from oneself. But to go to a famous place and complain , that it is overcrowded is to invite the retort that you yourself are helping to produce that' condition. The colonial who visits London must go to the Abbey and the Tower and other portions of the British heritage, and he will be fortunate indeed if he has these places to himself; The crowds who flock to such places are made up for the most part Of persons who can go only at one time in the year, and many of them, like the colonial him-

self, are realising a long-cherished dream. If you go to Paris you will wish to see Versailles and meditate on the irony of all its glories, but it is highly probable that you Will encounter streams of tourists —like yourself. To demand that you Bhall monopolise places famous for their beauty or historic interest is as selfish as Buskin's objection to the building of railways through beautiful scenery. Bailways bring thousands of peoplo to see the scenery. It is a pity, of course, that some of these people speak through their noses, throw banana skins about, or disport themselves with jazzy gramophones, but tourists or trippers have a perfect right 'to be there, they are not all like this, and those that are may come under the influence of their surroundings. In the current "Cornhill" a writer has something to say for the tourist, who, he says, has no mouthpiece, no Press, no delegate. He is in the hands of the tourist the manipulator. Yet, like the pilgrim, ho is bound on a spiritual, not a material, mission. "That is why too much luxury in travel kills the joy, and why those who set out on world tours in the spirit of the antiquo-hunter, for the sake of collecting the names of places they have been to, miss the mark." This writer takes a hopeful view of the future of "tourism." "The very facilities of transport and communications that appear to be stultifying his (the tourist's) in. tellect and hardihood are in fact lifting him up." The tourist idea will one day "disestablish the Worship of Mammon," but it Will not grow rapidly until its votaries organise themselves and buy a controlling interest in the trade. How this is to be done, unfortunately, the writer does not say. We may, however, note his hope and his ideal. We may reasonably say also that on a balance the tourist traffic does make for better understanding between peoples. It is hardly possible for a million Americans to visit Europe Without, h&wever slightly, weakening the traditional American conviction of righteous aloofness and immeasurable superiority. It is said that the fact that Byrd made New Zealand his base was to numbers of Americans the first intimation of New Zealand's separate existence. If we can induce a few thousand Americans to come here as tourists, this country may be discovered in detail. Certainly we have no right to discourage Americans or any peoplo from visiting us as tourists. Reciprocity is a jewel. Why should wa accept the Alps, the Tower, the Trossachs, Niagara, and the Grand Canyon as part of the world's heritage, and grumble when outsiders flock here to see Botorua and Mount Cook?