Imperial Valley press., 1932-07-16
OLYMPIC GAMES
WILL ATTRACT
MANY TOURISTS

Over S27.000.000 will be spent in
the 10 counties of Southern Cali
fornia by Olympic visitors, accord
ing to a leaflet prepared by the
! IAll-Year Club of Southern Cali
fornia and recently sent to the Ell
Centre Cham er of Commerce. The
chamber directors and staff were
particularly interested in these fig
ures as the building up of the tour
ist trade in Imperial Valley is one
of the major objectives of the
chamber for the ensuing year.
1t is easily seen, according to
chamber officials, how remunera-
tive a large tourist trade may be
when one consultS these figures
which show that the average ex-
penditure per tourist per day is
S6.OS. According to these figures,
if 20 cars a day stopped in Ell Gen.
tro. making an overnight stay, the
income from the occupants would
be $3.50 daily, or about $4,000 a
month. Statistics show the spend
ing of this S608 is divided as fol-
lows: AmusementS 58 cents, autos
and accessories 63 cents, drugs and
sundries nine cents, clothing and
merchandise 80 cents, food products,
including restaurants S1.10, gasoline
and oil 80 cents, housing Sl76,
laundry and dry cleaning Is cents,
professional and personal service
% cents and miscellaneous, such
as newspapers, shoe shines, souY-
enirs Al cents.
1t is expected that 325. .S24 persons
will be Olympic visitors this sum-
mer. and based on the above fig
ures. the expenditures of these per-
sons will amount to S37,58l ,428.
While this money will be spent
directly in the channels mention
ed, economists have proved that
pit per cent of sales goes into
payrolls. so S8,155 $3.50 of these ex-
penditures will find their way into
wages. A total Of 1l9, ,228 employees
will directly or indirectly be en-
gagged in the southern counties dur
ing the 10 days of these visitors
stay, making a total OF 2,2oo,3o9
days.
The El Centro chamber staff has
already contacted numerous large
parties which have been formed to
attend the Olympic games and will
enter the state through Imperial
Valley, making Ell Centre an over
night stop. Several of these parties
will contain from so to 100 per-
sons. These groups have been sent
literature on Ell Centro and 1mper-
ial Valley, descriptive booklets and
information concerning hotels, mo-
tor courts, auto camps and restaur-
ants. The chamber staff cannot
contact every individual who is
coming west over Highway U. S.
80. but innumerable visitors have
been contacted by mail and it is
expected that many of these will
make El Centro an overnight stop
ping place.
"El Centro is IN very advantage
Gus position to get tourists to stop
here" states w. A. Tondro, presi-
dent of the FL Centro Chamber of
Commerce. 1T Is on two tranScon-
tinental highways. the logical STOP
ping place for persons going to San
Diego, Los Angeles or Phoenix and
the people of this community must
make the city attractive enough
that travellers will want to stop
here overnight. During the greater
part of the year the weather is al
most perfect, we have agricultural
activities which are interesting to
visitors and the desert scenery sur
rounding Imperial Valley can be
made an attraction which few COM
munities this size can offer. There
is untold wealth to be derived from
the tourist trade and this commun-
ity should prepare definite pro-
gram to attract tourist visitors and
get its rightful share of the millions
of dollars which are annually spent
by tourists in the state OF Cali
fornia."