BID TO ATTRACT TOURISTS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25181, 12 May 1947, Page 3

BID TO ATTRACT TOURISTS

FRENCH CAMPAIGN THIS YEAR EFFECT OF HEAVY TAXES AND INFLATED PRICES French local authorities, travel associations, and hotel proprietors have joined forces in a 1947 campaign to attract foreign holiday-makers. Their great new bid to recapture lost tourist trade is threatened, however, by heavy taxation and inflated prices, says the “Glasgow Herald." quoting Reuter’s Paris correspondent. Most seriously affected by crippling taxation are the luxury hotels of the Riviera. In many of these establishments the Government tax means an addition of 61 per cent, on visitors’ bills and 95 per cent, on casino profits. At Nice recently hotel proprietors submitted a resolution to the Government requesting an immediate easing of taxation. Riviera night clubs are enforcing the 5 per cent, price reduction recently ordered by the French Government, but this 5 per cent, decrease is only a drop in the bucket of inflation which will have to be countered if the special tourist attractions planned for 1947 are going to draw any tourists apart from the too exclusive international coterie of millionaires who already have fortunes banked in France. Value of £75 The question which intending British tourists are asking themselves is— What is the purchasing power of £75 in France? —£75 being the sum which one is allowed to take out of Britain for tourist expenses in any one year. Roughly, at the present rate of exchange of 480 francs to the £, £75 spent in France in food, travel, and entertainment has only about half its value in Britain. However, if the holiday is spent exclusively visiting places of historical and artistic interest the only heavy outlay will be food and accommodation. But the prices which the holidaymaker must pay for meals are fantastic. In Paris restaurants the average cost of a meal is 255, and the prospects of cheaper meals in Paris this summer are not bright. The cost of entertainment is less formidable. Good seats in Paris cinemas cost about 5s each, while a seat can be found at the opera for 7s 6d. though a decent seat costs considerably more. Cost Against Pleasure War-wearied Britons in search of gaiety in Paris will find that the cost of it takes all the pleasure away. A single visit to a Montmartre night club will make a shocking hole in the £75 —a bottle of champagne will cost over £4. Tourist agencies in Paris are now presenting spectacular window displays advertising “King Carnival,” whose visit to the Riviera this year is estimated to involve an expenditure of nearly £21,000. Ten-day tours from Paris during the carnival period are being offered at the rate of £26 a head —but they include only transport and hotel accommodation. British tourists arriving in Paris with the intention of visiting the Nice carnival, or of buying some perfumes and silk, are therefore likely to find that the £75 which they brought with them will not go very far.