OCEAN TRAVEL

Southland Times, Issue 22948, 22 July 1936, Page 12

OCEAN TRAVEL

A BOOM PREDICTED. CRUISES TO FOREIGN LANDS A boom in ocean voyaging foreshadowed in the steadily increasing volume of tourist travel during the past year, gives promise of materializing during the summer months, (writes John Markland in The New York Times). Optimistic predictions, inspired by the revival which began last summer and spring, are rapidly giving way to facts and figures which show peak demand for passage to Europe, to South American and Caribbean ports and to a variety of resorts in every part of the globe. The preponderant majority of summer tourists, many of them already en route, have chosen Europe as their objective. Sabre-rattling and the scowls and grimaces of dictators appear to have inspired not the slightest fear in Americans anxious for a gondolaride in Venice, a go at Alpine mountain climbing, a look-in at the Olympics or a first-hand experience of communism. Although the Paris strike caused a few cancellations, French bookings are once more mounting; the passing of the Mediterranean war scare appears to have brought that region back to favour.

The British Isles lead all other individual European countries in popularity this year with Americans. An exceptionally long Shakespeare season at Stratford-on-Avon, the unfailing appeal for Americans of the university and cathedral towns, the lake country the Devon coast, Wales and London itself ensure for England a place on almost every European itinerary. Ascot, the Cowes Regatta, the Dublin Horse Show and the August gatherings of the Scottish Highlanders will help further to make the British Isles alluring to America's tourists. To the North Cape. Second only in popularity to the British Isles, particularly during the summer, are the Scandinavian and Baltic countries. North Cape and Baltic cruises, with opportunities for side trips into Russia have grown steadily in popularity during the last few years. For Americans the exchange rate is favourable, the customs and habits of the various peoples offer a refreshing and pleasing contrast with American ways, and tourists all agree that the midnight sun, which casts its strange light over much of the region until well into July, is worth going many miles to see. The eleventh Olympic Gaines at Berlin in August will, of course, draw their quota of visitors. Most Continental tours will make provision for attendance at the games. One travel agency will provide well-known athletic coaches guides. The Bayreuth Wagner festivals and the Munich opera season in July and August and the Olympic regatta at Keil in August are other attractions in Germany. Travel reichmarks enable tourists to obtain hotel and travel accommodation at substantial reductions. France, seeking to overcome disadvantageous currency exchange rates is also making concessions to tourists on hotel and travel charges. A full programme of early summer entertainments, including a Moliere season in a courtyard of the Louvre and a pageant depicting the growth of French industries, will be offered in Paris. Brittany, the chateaux, the wine country and the Riviera will, as usual, draw visitors to the French countryside. Italy and Russia. Italy also is meeting the unfavourable currency exchange rate with tourist lira which effect a saving on many important travel costs. Russia popular with casual travellers, who see the country under the guidance of Communist “experts,” is another European country which provides for special reductions on a number of tourist items. Luxurious cabin lineis as well as the smaller and slower ships will be pressed into service to help take care of the summer rush to foreign ports. A number of new itineraries has been announced. One new cruise, which, according to its sponsors, is solidly booked, will follow the southern ship lane from New York to Portugal, then will head northward, stopping at every European country with a port on the Atlantic and visiting two countries on the North Sea. Another cruise will combine a tour of the Mediterranean and the Near East with visits to points of interest around the Black Sea. Cruises to the Orient, to South

Africa, to South America and to Alaska and Hawaii will also carry many summer travellers. One pacific cruise departing from Portland, Oregon, will land its passengers in Yokohama in time for the annual Feast of the Lanterns in mid-July.