The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-24
Rv THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

European resort owners are as
blue this summer as the sea, lake
or channel waters in front OF their
luxury hotels.
High : ceilinged hotel corridors
echo emptily. Trinity clad walters
and bellhops, once hopeful OF a
seasonal bonanza, cluster in Cos
siping. complaining knots.
Despite a fair trickle of sum-
mer travellers, the anticipated and
optimistically estimated horde OF
well heeled Anglo : American
tourists failed to arrive in France
and Italy this season, an Assocl-
ated Press survey show.
The blue and gold French Ri
viera, all dressed up in fr h
paint and ready to 60 for its first
gala season since the war d S.
covered t h e typical prewar tour
list, with a camera over his Shout
der and his pocket bullying with
Francs, has disappeared.
Plenty Of Americans turn up on
the famed Cote DtAzur, but they
are American military personnel
on leave from Germany, loaded
with American cigarettes a d
other luxury items which they
hope to trade for the kind Of CLAM
erous vacation the Huttons, Van
derbilts and Whitneys used to
pony up thousands of dollars for.
These Americans, the French
found. have learned to drive a
hard bargain.
"There aren't enough American
and British people here with
money to spend" complained mi
sad : faced Nice hotel owner.
"eWe're getting a few, but they
aren't spenders."
At the municipal gambling
house where stakes are as low as
Is cents a chip, the play is about
as exciting as a Saturday nlght
social. Down the Mediterranean
coast a few miles, in the white
tea n d-tails gambling casino OF
Cannes, a few wealthy Frenchmen
give the spinning wheels a play
but the tourist, vintage of 1947,
seem to shy away.
Even the tourist = conscious
French government h a S realized
that tourist interest has turned
away from what was tops in
glamor and chic in the monled
twenties and uneasy thirties. A
half million recently published
pamphlets on travel in France,
but the emphasis on the battle
fields and cemeteries Of Norman
dy rather than the pleasures of
the Riviera or BiaFitz.
But resorts and villages which
were in the wake Of battle have
trouble handling many tourists.
for reconstruction has been slow
ed up considerably by the general
economic disease which has seized
all of Western Europe. Popular
Deauville on the coast Of the
English channel and belived OF
the English is having tough sled
ding because of high prices and
British restrictions on the amount
OF currency travellers may take
from the isles.
Travellers all over France main
tain that you heart just isn't in
it when the cost of playing runs
about two dollars for a shot of
'cognac and a meal costs two or
three times that amount.
"Prices are high because we
have to blu y everything on the
black market" a restaurant keep
er said. 'The black market sets
the price scale because we have
to pay black market prices for
everything we serve"
Transportation difficulties as
well as high prices keep the
Frenchmen themselves away from
their resorts. Train schedules are
about half as frequent as in pre-
war days - a tribute to the
craftsmanship OF British and
American airmen who strafed
every piece Of rolling stock in
sight.
"C'Est La Guerre," says tn
French with resignation.
The British are the big tourist
patrons of Italy this summer, but
it is a war-Wounded land which
demands two things Of the vaca-
tion-minded: lots OF money and a
good constitution.
Prices are sky high and travel
is 4 rough business. Few Ameri-
cans are on the scene, for ship
ping is entirely inadequate and it
is a two-day journey by rail from
France Or one-day by air. Air
travel is on the increase.
Naples, Of all the Italian tourist
Ravens, suffered the most wal
damage and is far from recovery,
but Capri has been almost com
pletely de-requisitioned by the
military. Tourist business on the
tiny island is in full swing. Hotels
are Amalfi and Sorrento aren't up
to prewar standards. The hotel
shortage in Venice and the Lido
is critical and most of the best
ones still are closed to the civil.
ian travellers.
But the Italian lakes, if price is
no object and the difficulties of
getting there can be overlooked,
are a m d : summer paradise.
Como, Bellagio, Villa D'este and
Menaggio are open and eager for