Tourism in Britain
A golden opportunity to secure a valuable invisible export will be lost if steps are not taken to satisfy those thousands of foreign tourists who will be anxious to visit Britain after the war. We have a beautiful country, we have unique historic monuments, and We stand in high esteem abroad. But our hotels and the travel services we offer will present a heavy handicap unless we do much to improve both. A memorandum prepared by the Travel and Industrial Development Association at the request of the Department of Over- seas Trade urges the appointment of an official tourist organisation, which should be provided with funds to rehabilitate and expand the tourist industry. The need for improving the hotels is fully recog- nised, and many suggestions for achieving that are put forward, in- cluding the amendment of some " misfitting and archaic laws." In the seventeenth century the hotels in this country were declared to be the best in the world. There is therefore perhaps nothing inherent in the British character to prevent us from providing suitable hospitalitY for travellers. The organisation suggested might well provide a British counterpart to the Syndicat d'Initiative, which in France used to afford such valuable services to tourists. It is estimated that at its peak the tourist industry was worth about 430,000,00e IC Great Britain on international account. Lord Derby says it could be made to yield Lioo,000,000—more than the average of our gni'. ping income in the 193os.
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