THE WESTERN FIELDS OF WAR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 68, 14 December 1918, Page 8

THE WESTERN FIELDS OF WAR

FRANCE FOR TOURISTS

PLANS BY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT

Already France is planning how :o earn some of the milliards of trancs that this war is costing her. A group tf legislators, realising that it ■ will take 6OUIO time after the win , for the industries to be re-established, have set about organising the tourist possibilities for Prance. According to an article in "Je Sais Tout," active measures are being (aken. Jieaus are applied to preserve the battlefields, and prepare the way for the millions of travellers from every part of the globe to see tho cities in ashes, the forests hewn down, mid tho taviigcd plains that the llun has 'eft with his savage brand mark. A transport service, ways and roads arc being prepared, nnd places of residence; tourists are to be put up in the homes of the native of the place or in comfortable huts, built in convenient spo.s. Toms will be arranged to see the ruins of Verdun of Reims, and Arras or f Poronne, and the battlefields of Cliampngne, Artois, and the Somine. According to statistics, France has pro(ited very little by tourist traffic, whilo Switzerland and the Central Powers, 1 with no superior original advantages, have been drawing large revenues. Ami the reason-lies in the scientific advertisement of tourists' resorts and in catering for the comfort and ease of the tourists once they are attracted to the ep'ot. France, with glorious olnine mountain scenery in the Jura, L'Aiii, ami le Dou'bs, has had no tourist traffic. In Switzerland there were 2000 hotels while Franco had but 219. Again, in the case of the watering towns and health resorts with mineral waters, whereas in ISVfI France Had about the same number of visitors as tho Central Powers, in 1914 Germany was drawing a revenue from her mineral water resorts of :i million million francs, while France had but 150,000,000 francs, yet the Cierman waters are i.ll of an ordinary type, whilo the French springs are varied and rare. Professor ■ Robin, of the Academy of Medicine, says the cause of (.(ormary's success lay in the perfection «i her es ; tablishments. in their equipment, and in Iheir comfort, in their easy access, and especially in the fact of so rnsiny declor.s being (rained' in Germnny, and laiight there to know and utilise the hydi'ologic resources n! Germany. Kins used to receive 24,000 visitors, Wiesbaden 18,000 Hombougli 17,000, Nuuehim lld.CflO, and from these visitors was levied the "cure tax." Kveryone who lodged "at an hotel or private hou?e had io .pny tho tax it Ihey stayed over a veck. The head of the family paid ;)7, 20, or 12 francs, the other members the half or a quarter, according to.lheir «ge. Jlesidi's Ilicre wns ;i municipal lax of 1} fi'nnn per head. In the 300 resorts o! the Central Power.-.- there iwru nboul 1.500.000 visitors, who gave a revenue of nearly 10,000,00(1 francs yearly, and oiulliiril' of the visitors were foreigners. lint this section of the visitors will boycott the German health resorts after th'o war, and France is sett ing out to prepare her mineral war towns to receive these visitors. Dr. flobin considers the first need is to prepare establishments as perfect as those in the rival resorts of Germany and Austria, by making thpin perfect in ventilalion, lighting, equipment and in the staffing. Dr. .Robin insists, too, on the necessity of the hostellers observing strictly tho diet and regime that the doctors -prescribe. He tells the anecdote of a wealthy patient who once had been to a French resort, but said he must go next year to a. German watering placo because at the French hotel, when he asked for champagne, which the doctor had forbidden him, they supplied it, wherens in Germany, when he had asked for it, they used to reply that it was forbidden in tho "cure." The municipal authorities also need to create parks and promenades, and paths and shelters, and put up sign-posts, -plant trees, and prepare an "amusements" programme of sports or fetes to entertain visitors. To obtain funds for this a "visitors' tax" is suggested, on the analog) , of the "cure tax/ This was not passed as-a legislative incisure,'it is a. voluntary matter. ..Those tourist resorts that have adopted it find that they can afford to improve and embellish their town, and tho number of visitors increases. Those towns who thought to attract moro visitors by not imposing the lax have found tho contrary, to be true. It is probable that this tax will be made compulsory in every health and tourist resort, as it meaiis a progressive development through tho added funds available for improvements. Another striking movement in this connection is the establishment of a high school at Paris to train pupils in the art ot' hostelry. Bight schools hiiye been established, elsewhere, i.e., at Nice, at Thonon, at \ Havre (boys'), at Kouen (girls'), at Toulouse (boys), at Grenoble (mixed), at Vichy (boys'). Tho school would be something like our domestic arts courso, ' with training in other languages, English ond Italian; and such branches as a scientific study of food values, of artistic furnishing and domestic economy generally, would equip tho pupils for successfully undertaking the management of a tourists' hotel, with every comfort, from cuisine to decoration. Luxurious hotels for visitors need capital, and tho development of the "hotollerie" in France has been assured by the support of La Banciue de France, finance societies and the chief bankers, and all the hotel syndicates have formed a union, so that tho Hotelier Credit will have strength and stability. In Austria the Government guarantees interest on tho capital invested by hotel proprietors during tho first ftvo years, which are considered as not likely to give any return. The Swiss tourist industry could never have been created without the help of the Swiss banks, and tho French- bunker is to support the French "hotellerie" in the samo manner. He is to see in this business not a slight affair because it will not yield big profits, but rather an investment far moro solid and secure than many foreign ones that hitherto havo attracted French savings. Tho question of advertising is being discussed earnestly. Pamphlets, artistically illustrated, to show the beauties of tho country, are to bo put in the steamers coming to Europe, and in tho sleeping berths of nil the European railway* It is proposed also to establish chturs of hydrology in every French Universih' to leach tho value of French mineral waters; to send professors and studento to foreign universities and receive fin , ' oign students in tho high schools; to organise visits of foreign doctors to the mineral springs, and have touring caravans for owners and managers of important newspapers and magazines. The Director of the Louvre, M. Andre Michel, in a lecture lately spoke of the varied riches of France with every variety of climate and cultivation, from the hop to the orange grove, with her mountains and plains, pasture lands and vine-; vards. and, above, all, in addition to the Wiefy of aspects and traditions and origins—one soul, one single France, rich with the heritage of all the old provinces that have sheltered under her j shield.