HOLIDAY IN BRITAIN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 97, 21 February 1947, Page 6

HOLIDAY IN BRITAIN

HOTEL REQUISITIONS LIFTED TOURIST BOARD ESTABLISHED Transport, accommodation and food difficulties still hinder the reception of large numbers of foreign tourists in Britain, but the Government are anxious to attract visitors as soon as possible, and have been carefully calculating what the country can now offer. They concluded that finality can be given to a certain number by the supply of equipment to certain classes of hotels, boarding-houses, holiday camps and similar establishments, which would be able to cater not only for foreign visitors, but also for those in Britain who need to enjoy recuperative- leisure after strenuous efforts during and since the war.

Lord Hall, announcing in the House of Lords particulars of a new organisation to look after tourist, hotel, holidays and catering services, said that over 86 per cent, of the hotels, etc., held on requisition two years ago had been released, and rapid progress is being made in releasing the remainder. Regional officers of the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Food, the Board of Trade, etc., had been instructed to give urgent sympathetic consideration to all projects that will benefit tourists and- holiday services, particularly in areas most likely to attract foreign visitors.

The Government have now received from Lord Inman, well-known as chairman of Charing Cross Hospital, among many other public activities, a report on co-ordination in the development of holiday services. As a result, they have decided to set up early this year in the form of an incorporated body, a Tourist Catering and Holiday Board, including representatives of the interests concerned. The Board’s executive functions will be carried on by four divisions dealing with tourist, catering, holiday and hotel services. The existing Travel Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will play an important part under the new Board. The interests concerned will bear the major part of the cost, with Treasury assistance in the early stages. Vacations With Pay There has been a great increase lately in the numbers able to enjoy holidays with pay. Altogether new, some fifteen million persons in industry, plus their dependents, are entitled to such holidays. This means the large extension of facilities which was foreseen by the Coalition Government when they passed

the Catering and Wages Act during the war. As a result of that Act, reports were furnished during the war on the 1 rehabilitation of the catering industry and the development of catering, holiday and tourist services, which formed the basis of the present plan's. The Opposition offered full support and co-operation. They had been nervous whether the object of the new Board would be to control rather than assist private effort, but Lord Hall’s assurance that it did not represent, either in form or intention, any endeavour to nationalise these great services removed that anxiety. All were agreed that tourists should be encouraged both as’ a contribution to world peace and friendship and as an “invisible export” capable of providing Britain with as much as £IOO million yearly on international account. No less are the Conservatives at one with the Government in welcoming measures designed to help to relieve the drabness of the industrial worker’s life! v "'