VISITORS TO RUSSIA

Hokitika Guardian, 2 August 1930, Page 6

VISITORS TO RUSSIA

10,000 EXPECTED THIS' YEAR

HOUSING PROBLEM. There was a time when foreign visitors to the Soviet Union consisted largely of business men, delegations of Communist and semi-Gommunist workers, intellectuals from Western Europe and America, and research students of various types. Now the country is beginning to accommodate an increasing stream of tourists, travelling lor pleasure and curiosity. Last year 1 about/ three thousand tourists entered the Soviet Union in organised parties. Judging from arrangements which have already been made with the travel agencies and shipping companies, which have concluded contractual arrangements with the Intourist, or Soviet State Tourist Agencj, the number of foreign visitors to Russia this year will reach nine or ten thousand, and it is asserted at tlie office of the Intourist that many applications must be declined because of insufficient accommodation. Soviet hotels, especially in Moscow are chronically overcrowded, and the problem of housing even pine or ten thousand transient visitors, unless, tlie parties, are properly.spaced out, so that too many will not arrive ,in any one place at the same time may be quite difficult. The matter of feeding the tourists, in view of the general food stringency, will be arranged by allotting special supplies to the hotels which will be reserved for toursts in provincial towns. MEDIEVAL RUSSIA. Intourist offers foreign travellers in Russia a choice among thirty-nine routes, ranging from five-day stops in Leningrad and Moscow to trips lasting a month, and taking the travellers down tlie Volga and through Russia s traditional summer resorts, tlie Cauciasus, and the Crimea. The trips in tlie Caucuses, vaiy ; from journeys by motor over well-travelled '*.< roads to mountaineering ascents on such high peaks as Kanbek and Elbruz, and horseback expeditions into Svanetia, an inaccessible Caucasian region cut oft from the ‘ rest of' the world by a ring of big'peaks. Another trip which should commend itself to lovers of medieval Russian art and architecture includes visits <i ’tb-“isubh towns as Novgorod, Pskov, Jaroslav, and Rostov, not the bustling city on ,the Don, but the quiet town north of Moscow.

Leningrad is a common startingpoint for ’tourists,' who, in the great thajority ' ,arrive ' during -1 the summer months; and ten German and British ships have been, chartered to take travellers-there this year. - The cost of tours'in'Russia varies with, the, accommodation provided-; but,? generally speaking, the Soviet Union is a rather expensive’^ tourist rates for Moscow vary from t^j|ts^fdur ; 'd6llars:^ r a : (lay'-l'or'kl?' ! tbui'ists,; .'.who ' -enjoy the use of taxL cabs and take-the best seats at the ballet, to seven dollars for persons of more modest purses and tastes.

MOSTLY AMERICANS. About 60 per cent of the tourists are American, many of whom were horn in Russia, and welcome tlie opportunity to revist their native homes and relatives. A varied and strenuous programme of sight-seeing, including * •• c its to art galleries, museums, Soviet institutions,' model prisons, u.iTdroa s nurseries,- the Kremlin, etc., is provided in Moscow by tlie Intourist, wl.uli works in close eo-operation . wiv.h I e Soc’ety for Cut urn I Belatjpn-i ~whli F' reign Countries. About di ed guides and interpreters, nave •'•pa Mr oil Through special courses of , train inx for service with foreign tourists. 'Tltese courses include, besides foreign languages, Russian history, art and architecture, an d“ politgrnmota,” or training in Soviet political and economic theories-aiid practices. , While it seems doubtful if the Soviet Union in any near future will lie able to provide the comforts and conveniences associated with travel in Western Europe, the novelty of the experience, and interest in tlie new revolutionary structure seem to attract a certain number of travellers; and at present the number of actual or prospective tourists outruns the provision of facilities for their accommodation. From the economic standpoint, it is distinctly in the interest of the Soviet Government to encourage its “tourist Industry,” because the foreigners bring into the country the foreing currency which is .so much in demand. Efforts are being made to improve the inadequate Lousing accommodation, and work will soon begin on two new Moscow hotels, with seventeen hunderd and fifty rooms.