The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1916-05-18

NA@NNNN ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
thousands of people who at the
elaborate, costly hotels run their
daily expenditures into big fig
ures. There are some who spend
very moderate amounts at board
ing houses and the smaller hotels
and between these two extremes
there are tens Of thousands who
at the average Florida hotel pay
| S. a day or more for hotel accom-
modations. To hotel and board
ling house expenses should be add
ed the expenses for motoring,
yachting, fishing, the purchase of
souvenirs and the thousand and
one things which absorb the
tourist s money,
Tourists Left $30,000,000
1t is safe to estimate that the
average expenditure for a tourist
for the winter was So day. Some
estimate the amount considerably
above S. a day and some little
lower, but S. is at least a conserv-
atively low figure. On this basis
the average cost to the winter
visitor while in Florida was $3.50
for the thirty days and for the
100000 visitors, this would mean
$30,000,000 expended in Florida
last winter by tourists. These
figures, except as to the arrivals
by transportation lines furnished
to the Manufacturers Record, are
estimates. Others can speculate
as to the average length of the
tourists stay and as to the aver
age amount expended and make
their calculations as to whether
$50, 100000 is too much or too lit
tie. We believe, based on a rath-
or wide study of the subject, that
| it is low figure. Its magnitude,
however, is far beyond any esti-
mate that we have ever seen as to
what the tourist travel means to
the state of Florida.
A large proportion of these Wis
itors were from the far west and
northwest, and during the pres
ent winter, a considerable number
were from Canada. The average
length of the trip prior to reach
ing the state would be upwards of
1000 miles, or 1000 miles for the
round trip to Jacksonville and re-
! turn.
Counting the cost of the Pull
mans'S and the incidental expens-
es of the journey the railroad ex-
pcnSes must have been on an av-
erage not less than $75 per capita.
This would mean a minimum
SIS, 100000 to the railroads and
steamship lines before these trav-
elers passed beyond Jacksonville,
the gateway into the state.
State Will Have Great Highways
In proportion to wealth and
population, Florida is probably
spending more money on road
building than any other state in
the Union. Counting the expen-
ditures made during the last
twelve months, those under way
and those for which bonds will
shortly be issued, there is in pro-
cess of expenditure by Florida on
its highways at least $1O,0OO,O0O.
Florida is not simply talking"
about good roads and then max
ing cheap ordinary dirt roads; it
is building permanent highways,
many of brick, so that within a
year or two it will be possible to
travel to and from every part of
the state over splendidly built
brick or is doing a work in this
respect that bespeaks the energy,
the enterprise and the intelligence
of its people. 1t is setting an ex-
ample to the entire south. In
deed, it is setting a pace that 1T
will be hard for any other state
in the Union to more than match,
and very few of them can keep
step with it. 1t is the only state
in the south where friendly rival
ny and competition in road build
ing between different counties is
as active as here. The rivalry is
so great as to assure the compile
ton in the near future of a chain
of highways which will reach
from Jacksonville to Miami, from
Miami across the Everglades to