TOURISTS IN BRITAIN
SIR,—It is encouraging to note from a recent announcement of Mr. Marquand, Secretary for Overseas Trade, that a board has been formed to develop the tourist trade of this country. Also that the Treasury is Considering the amount of money foreign visitors may spend while here. Surely this is an excellent opportunity for indirectly increasing our export business at retail prices instead of wholesale, and should also prove a first-class method of free publicity for British goods to all parts bf the world. Naturally the board will be giving its special attention iv considering the best means of accommodating and entertaining visitors to our shores, and probably the question of the extent to which they may be encouraged to purchase non-food supplies is a matter for the Board of Trade and the Treasury to finalise.
However, whichever the case, I offer the following suggestion as a practical means of encouraging tourists to buy British goods, and I hope that those concerned may. give it careful consideration. 1. That a visitor on arrival in this country should be invited to purchase with foreign exchange voucher-books issued by the Board of Trade and circulated through the banks on their behalf, with values of, say, £5, 'Lao. kso and Do° and each divided into Is., iris. and LI units. 2. These vouchers could be accepted (within a given period) by any
retailer for the purchase of goods other than food supplies. .3. The retailer concerned would accept the vouchers as cash and when they were exchanged for rationed goods requiring coupons the purchaser would sign a detailed declaration form provided in the voucher books that he had received the rationed goods. 4. These lists would be sub- mitted monthly by the retailers to the Board of Trade, and they would receive, in return, a separate authority for each type of merchandise referred to, crediting the home-trade supplies against the export. quota. 5. This authorisation would be forwarded by the retailer to the re- spective manufacturers, and would enable him to replace goods free of coupons and, at the same time, grant him the credit of such transactions against his export quota. In this way. supplies for home consumption would not be reduced, and tourists would be encouraged to return to their own countries with a supply of British goods.—Yours faithfully,
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