RICH MAN'S PLAYGROUND

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIV, Issue 3239, 6 December 1930, Page 3

RICH MAN'S PLAYGROUND

BRITAIN PREFERRED TO CONTINENT. More Americans are spending their holidays in England this year than ever before —and London is fast becoming the centre of the wealthy, sight-seeing visitors from the other side of the Atlantic. N It is estimated that there are 45 "Million-Dollar Kinks" scattered about the United Kingdom just now ; representing a combined wealth of £60,000,000. They are spending most of their

vacation in this country, instead of reserving just the few final days of their stay after a prolonged holiday on the Continent. — The great Cunarders which have come across the Atlantic during the past month or so tell an astonishing story of the change which has taken place in the habits of the money-to-burn American holiday maker. The Mauretania on her last voyage from New York landed 117. out of 195 of her cabin-de-luxe passengers in England. The same story can be told of the greyhounds of the White Star Line — vessels like the Majestic, which landed 785 passengers at Southampton as against 584 at Cherbourg, and the

Homeric, which brought 760 passengers to England and only landed 587 in France. These figures", remarkable as they are, would have been much larger but for the Passion Play at Oberammergau, which drew thousands of tourists to Germany. Leading London Hotels all report an increase in the American booking this season. And what is still more remarkable is the fact that they are staying longer here than ever before. Experts who handled the bulk of the American travel trade in this country declare that England is rapidly becoming the world's playground.