Evening star., 1951-09-16
All America
Travels Now
OnVuc0tions
By Horace Sutton

IFdVal sdifoF, the SotuToof keNteW
NEW YORK.-Some surveys.
Just issued concerning the Ma
tion's travel habits indicate that
nobody stays home much any
more. If anybody answered the
bell the last time you called on
the neighbors, you must have
caught them between trips.
Americans are proving the great
est tribe of wanderers since the
gypsies moved over from Hin
duStan.
No fewer than 70 million citi-
zens, or half the Nation, took
vacation trips in 1850. according
to figures compiled by the Amer
lean Automobile Association. If
you thought things looked a little
crowded on the roads over the
Labor Day week end, it might
have been because we now have
40 million passenger cars in the
land, enough to move the entire
population at one time.
Some So million countrymen
and women went yacationing in
cars last year. Nearly IA million
people visited the national parks.
Five of the reServationS-the
Great Smoky Mountains, Shen-
andoah, Yellowstone. Rocky
Mountains in Colorado and Platt
in Oklahoma-drew over ! million
apiece.
100000 to Mexico.
Seven and half million Amer
leans went to Canada last year
and dropped a bundle that
amounted to $500 million when
the last tab was counted. AL
most 100000 United States vaca-
TONERS trundled off to Mexico,
and the Mexico City Chamber of
Commerce figured they left a
cool 500 million. Only agricul-
ture produced more revenue than
touriSrn south of the Rio Grande.
Last year the State Department
issued 299. .665 passports, the great
est number in history, and 10000
more than the year before. Many
Americans hurried to Europe to
"see it before it closes" And what
occupational category accounted
for more passports than any
other? Housewives, that's who!
What I'd like to know is, who
kept the home fires burning, and
who stayed home to listen to Mary
Margaret Mcbride?
More people travelled more miles
in airplanes in 1850, and the Mi
ami International Airport, gate
way to the Caribbean and South
America, recorded a 80 per cent
passenger increase during the first
10 months of the year.
$4,000 to Bermuda.
Sixty thousand people looking
for a place to relax chose Bermuda
last year. and that was more
Americans than the island had
ever entertained before. Caribbean
business shot up by a fifth.
Here at home, Is States now rate
travel among their three most i'm
portant industries. In Florida and
New Mexico it is the States big
gest endeavor. The gross national
vacation budget last year, accord
ing to the AAA, came to $40 bill
lion. The country spends $55 bill
lion on food and drink. $21 billion
on clothing and accessories, SIG
billion on passenger cars and their
care and $12 billion on household
furnishings.
The business of giving the tour
list a good time is so pleasant, and
raking in the shekels "a compan-
ion endeavor) is equally so enjoy
able that anybody with hunk of
real estate big enough to take a
pup tent is wondering about de-
veloping the place as a resort.
A-Bomb Attractions.
Some giddy characters out in
Nevada even began to ponder the
prospects after some of their land
had been blessed with a test
atomic explosion. A recent press
report went something like this:
LAS Vegas, New. - Another
atom-bomb test was held at 8:46
am. near this city 1t was the
fourth such test within the past
two weeks.
1T is reported that people are
now coming from far and near to
witness the blasts. -. Tourists are
said to sleep all day. then sit up
at night all night in their cars,
waiting for the flash in the sky
and the ominous rumbling. -.
ut is thought by some that the
tests may soon become a tourist
attraction rivaling the Las Vegas
casinos-perhaps even rivaling
the Grand Canyon"