The Idea of Tourism for the Poor is Gaining Increasing Comment in the British Press

If I want to guarantee that a post of mine will touch off dozens of angry protests from readers, I have only to write about "social tourism" -- namely, tourism for the poor. In numerous European nations, programs of social tourism exist, designed to assist poor families to enjoy a yearly vacation from their toils. In many cases this can be done without public expenditure, as by permitting persons of a low income level to enjoy a yearly free trip to a vacation area on a state-owned railway, or by enabling poor families to enjoy free access to national parks or museums.

I am well aware that in the current political thinking of the United States, it is impossible to even contemplate that a program of social tourism could ever pass the Congress. I am further aware that social tourism in the United States must, at least for the time being, be confined to charitable programs enabling poor children to attend summer camps, like the Fresh Air Funds in many states. So for the time being, it's best that I simply desist from writing about the subject.

But I simply have to note that in recent weeks, the subject of social tourism has become an actively considered one in Great Britain, where a group known as the Family Holiday Association has encouraged several members of Parliament to launch a study of social tourism for Britain. A British travel website that covers news developments in travel, TravelMole ( www.travelmole.com ), has recently pointed out that Director John McDonald of that Association has urged

"an All Party Parliamentary group...to recommend a pilot scheme for social tourism ... He claimed other countries in Europe had already recognized the value of social tourism and were reaping the rewards. In France, a holiday voucher scheme enabled seven million families to take a break last year, adding 3 billion Euros to the economy... and the Spanish got back 1.5 Euros for each one Euro they spent on holiday vouchers for the retired... Social tourism is not widely accepted in this country but in the rest of Europe it is huge."

"The Family Holiday Association, a charity supported by the travel industry, takes 2500 families on holiday every year but McDonald said more should be done to help the 2.5 million poorest families to get a break within the UK."

As the British campaign for social tourism receives more press comment, I'll report on it in this blog.