Restriction Of Tourists’ Itineraries In Russia

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29766, 8 March 1962, Page 17

Restriction Of Tourists’ Itineraries In Russia

Travelling in Russia was not a case of what a person wanted to do or where he wanted to go: it was all arranged by an official Government agency. The traveller could put forward his itinerary, and it would be rearranged by the agency, said Mr L. Stevens, an American travel agent, yesterday.

Mr Stevens is one of the tour directors of a party of 79 American cattle ranchers at present touring New Zealand. He is a partner in a Californian travel agency, his headquarters being in Sacramento. Mr Stevens said he arranged a large number of tours and often went on them.

The places he had visited included Europe, the East, Africa, the central and southern United States, Alaska, and the Pacific. He had also been on tours behind the Iron Curtain, his last visit to Russia being in May last year.

The architectural standards of Russian buildings were strange to Westerners, and were a blend of the Western and the Oriental. There was a lot of exterior decoration, but frequently the buildings seemed poorly engineered. The cities rather gave the impression of dullness, and apart from the ballet, theatre, and circus there was little for tourists to do, particularly in the evenings. Entertainment was strictly controlled by the State, and in Russia he had seen nothing corresponding to night clubs. Accommodation in Russia was, by Western standards, mostly inferior, he said. Most travelling was done by air or by train, which, again by Western standards, tended to be second-class. Tourists in Russia did not meet with very much curiosity, although occasionally persons would come up and ask questions. “The society and thinking of Russians seem to have been regulated from a tender age, and they show little interest,” he said.

While he had been in Russia there had been little opportunity to shop, said Mr Stevens, but generally merchandise seemed of good quality.. It was hard to say anything about comparative prices, without a better knowledge of the local economic conditions, but he had gained the impression that prices were generally higher than in most Western countries. »