World Tourism Year ‘A Tourism Disaster'

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31479, 20 September 1967, Page 5

World Tourism Year ‘A Tourism Disaster'

(N.Z. Press Assn.—CopyriXiht)

LONDON, Sept. 19, In the (northern) autumn of 1966 the United Nations General Assembly designated 1967 “world tourism year.” Its timing could not possibly have been worse, United Press International reports. The summer being almosi over, the indications are that 1967 is going to he a world tourism disaster. Wars and rumours of wars, economic pinches and plain human unpredictability have caused fewer people to go to fewer places—and spend less money when they got there. “It's sad.” sighed a waiter in an ornate Paris hotel, surveying a huge diningroom empty except for one French couple and one resident American. “It's sad. Hardly any tourists this year.” “It’s dismal,” echoed a spokesman for Vienna's luxurious Sacher Hotel. In August one in five of the Sacher’s rooms was empty, and the spokesman said, “I can’t recall when this has happened before.” A Beirut hotelier moaned i that the year had been a disaster, but he thought next! year would be even worse. By I

this time, he said, he norm-' ally would have had 35,000 rooms booked for the season to come. This year he had not booked one. i Nation after nation reported in a late summer United Press International survey that this season’s tourist business was either down or far off expectations. Only Britain, Portugal and Spain seemed to have escaped the tourist drought. Britain set another record in the year’s first six months, foreign tourists being tip 12 per cent from 1966. Portugal boasted a spectacular jump, of the order of 25 per cent. Spain’s figures have been slightly up on last year’s record, but not nearly so much as the Spaniards exIpected. I Swiss officials called this I season the worst in years. Austria, which depends, heavily on tourist spending, suffered a drop. French tourist officials merely hold their aching ; heads and change the subject. ; Italy’s tourism figures are I up for the year, but mainly ; because Italians have been : seeing Italy first. There were ; 3,556,308 fewer foreigners in Italian hotels this July than i during the same 1966 period. ( ! Finland’s tourist business i j has been good, thanks to the i (Russians —8200 Russian tour-1 ists in the first half. Russia's i I I figures are up thanks to' i

Americans—lB,ooo American tourists up to August 1. America's foreign tourist figures are up thanks to the Europeans—B3 per cent more of them this July than last. But tourism generally has been badly off. The Arab-Israeli war in June blasted a vast hole in the tourist map embracing the whole Middle East, and sent. shock waves everywhere. The Government coup in Greece cut that country's influx severely. Britain's rigid limits on vacation spending abroad turned it into a nation of stay-at-homes. West Germany's economic slump trimmed the flow both of Germans and the deutschmark they carried. Americans saved money—and cocked a snook at President Charles de Gaulle’s foreign policy—by avoiding France in droves. Norwegian officials noted that hotel bookings were constant but campground registrations were up. The Danish tourist head, Mr Svend Acker, said hotel figures dropped though overall tourist figures were up—and camp grounds were jammed. Tourism, when the tourists co-operate and spend more freely, is not only big busi-J ness, it is vital business fori many countries. Some nations rank it their leading industry. In others it is within the top three.