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robert g smith pmishn its time ive took tourism seriously as we put this issue to bed we were struck by the wide choice of holiday destinations and exciting holiday ac tivities available to canadians com pared to a decade ago canadian ski resorts have finally begun to respond to the boom in cross country skiing now that there are over 1000000 canadian cross country enthusiasts what has happened in skiing is pretty well characteristic of the entire tourist industry millions are spent on the glamour end while the mass market languishes waiting for de velopment for example there has been a boom in winter beach resort buildinginnorthamericaandeurope more governments are getting into the resort development business in cooperation with international air lines and multinational corporations manyofwhomarcintheresort business for the first time tourist depart ments of many countries are super vising the planning and building of major resort complexes whereas it used to take years even decades to develop an international resort most planners think in terms of months jet airports highways high rise hotels condominiums shops and restaurants mushroom at remote beach sites the developers arc faced with the task of trainingwholc towns in the business local people often resent the complete uprooting of their lives in order to cater to a flood of foreign visitors an example of how quickly things can go wrong despite the declared in tentions of government may be found in jamaica canadian visitors have been badgered by jamaicans the government ran an advertising campaign to get people to deal more politely with tourists however it takes more than a little advertising to change fundamental attitudes abuse of the tourist business can be more subtle many resort oper ators believe in charging all the traffic will bar florida got a bad name for high prices a few years ago which cost them considerable busi ness several caribbean countries are moving in the same direction if something isnt done to discourage prce gouging the results of years of careful promotion can go down the tubes in a few months whether or not the developer says he is building for the mass market inflation has escalated costs putting the great new resort complexes out of reach of the majority of canadians rising prices are clearly against the best interest of the industry ever since the rapid growth of the charter market in canada in the sixties it should be clear that mass market merchandising is the key to future industry growth the iata airlines finally gave up and introduced low group inclusive tour fares since then group travel has become big business in north america and europe for example an estimated 9000 swedes will visit portugal this year on group travel plans if the mass market is to continue to develop everyone in tourism must get together to coordinate low cost holidays and merchandise them to consumers this includes govern ments educational institutions trans portation companies hotels and motels and customs and immigration people if there is any doubt as to whether or not this is a worthy area for in vestment an examination of the figures should dispel it tourism has grown at a rapid pace over the past 15 years the world tourism organ ization reports that tourist spending rose from 21 billion to 29 billion between 1950 and 1974 in the latter year canada ranked fourth in the world in total per capita expendi tures its too important a business to manage in a haphazard manner march 1977 volume xv no 1 published six times a year by smith publishing co editorial offices suite 741 1010 st catherine street west dominion square building montreal quebec h3b 4b4 telephone 514 8668148 toronto sales office 49 st clair avenue west toronto ontario telephone 416 9677243 staff robert g smith publisher john moore editor susan passaretti and norma mclellan editorial assistants travel writers travel times welcomes paul dulmage who wrote the feature on ladies golf in this issue paul began his career as a sports writer for the toronto tele gram he is past editor of golf can ada and now writes feature articles on sports topics for leading canadian publications other contributors sean harris samuel mcevoy john moore stanley ryan jamesst john silvia winters and bernie wiseman contributors to this issue travel times gratefully acknowl edges the cooperation of the new foundland department of tourism prince edward island the portuguese government office of tourism the spanish government office of tour ism office national autrichien du tourismc british tourist authority air canada cn british airways and the city of montreal who sup plied pictures for this issue travel times is inserted into the following newspapers metropolitan montreal the mont real star toronto region the ajaxpickcr- ing news advertiser the burling ton post the brampton guardian the etobicokc gazette the mark- ham economist sun the missis- sauga news the newmarket aurora era the oakville beaver oshawa this week and the stouf- ville tribune total circulation 505000