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Show LOCAL LEADERS SHOULD PROMOTE TOURIST BUSINESS With a greater influx of tourists into Utah this season than ever before, it becomes more evident that a golden stream of traveler's dollars now passing through Utah towns could in many instnaces be diverted into local hands. Both Zion and Bryce report increases in-creases in the tourist visitation for June as compared with June of last year. A comparative travel data report just issued for the current travel year shows tourist travel in the National Parks up 11 per cent. Nearly every community on the State's major highways have something some-thing of tourist interest. Many communities have Utah Pioneer museums, art exhibits, collections of Indians artifacts, mineral collections, coll-ections, points of historical interest inter-est or other items of unusual interest inter-est extremely interesting to the traveler, tourist and sightseer anxious anx-ious to see everything his travel ininerary can affer. Unfortunately the traveler in i Utah is passing such places by the thousands, completely unaware they exist. It is up to local communities com-munities to do something about the situation. The State Department of Publicity Pub-licity is anxious to cooperate with communities, civic groups or individuals indiv-iduals who feel they have something some-thing to offer the tourist. Since actual records compiled by the Publicity Department reveals that the tourists in Utah are spending $26 every day they are in the state, anything that Utah cities and towns can offer them by way of i historical, scenic or educational interest in-terest tends to prolong their stay. To hold them in Utah only a few more hours or another day or so increasese by millions of dollars the annual tourist expenditure in this state. Thousands of prospective vacationists vacat-ionists and travelers write the Utah Department of Publicity annually trying to find out what Utah has to offer the tourist passing thru the state. Thev are eager and anx- ious to see everything of importance import-ance the state has to offer. While the Utah Publicity Department does everything possible to inform these folks on major scenic attractions, attrac-tions, it is now up to local community com-munity leaders to get into the harness and cooperate with the State in trying to influence the tourist visitor to spend more time in Utah. Travelers on a strange highway pay considerable attention to road signs and there are still two months left when the major highways of Utah will be crowded with tourist automobiles carrying people looking look-ing for a place to eat where food is above the average, looking for "sights and " scenes" which"' are strange to their eyes and for friendly people. These travelers will stop if intriguing road signs advise them that there is something some-thing ahead worth stopping for. If they linger, they will either spend for food, gasoline or other items they need. This expenditure boosts local prosperity and puts into in-to circulation money which flows ultimately into many pockets. Tourists courts and gasoline stations sta-tions can do much to remind visitors visit-ors that the community has something some-thing of unusual interest. A few suggestions by operators of such places often results in holding tourists tour-ists in certain communities for many hours, thus paying dividends to all concerned. Vacation Travel Trends According to American Automobile Auto-mobile Association experts, the tourists this year are acting contrary con-trary to expectations. They were j expected to make shorter trips I this year and instead, are going just as far, or farther and staying as long or longer than last season. Travel to Europe is reported to be extra good and thousands of tourists tour-ists who might have spent their money vacationing in the U. S. are hiking off to Europe by the ship load. Air travel is booming again. Traffic thus far during 1949 has climbed from 16 to 18 per cent ahead of the first half of 1948, and some carriers are reporting a load factor of 80 to 85 per cent on some of their main routes. Foreign Countries Compete For V. S. Tourist Dollar Foreign nations, anxious to get their share of the U. S. tourist dollar are going all out to attract the American traveler. For example, ex-ample, the South African railways are making available 16mm sound films in color, showing scenic attractions at-tractions and tourist resorts. To offset this competition, the National Association of Travel Officials Of-ficials have compiled a directory listing all American sound films available made to promote the vacation va-cation business or recreational travel. tra-vel. Among these listed are the sound films distributed by the U-tah U-tah State Department of Publicity and which have had a tremendous bearing and influence on the present pres-ent tourist influx into Utah. Nation's Newspapers Promote Vacation and Tourist Travel During June, July and August more than 40 of the Nation's biggest big-gest newspapers have put out or are putting out, special vacation and resort issues. A number of these have used articles prepared by the Utah Department of Publicity, Pub-licity, and even the St. Petersburg Florida Times of June 19, carried a half page spread with four photos pho-tos depicting Utah's scenic attractions. |