TRAVEL: The Biggest Season

• Share

The boom in European travel this year will be the greatest ever. Last week transatlantic airlines and shiplines predicted that they will boost last year's record haul by 10%, carry abroad more than 600,000 Americans who will spend upwards of half a billion dollars.

American tourists were already spreading over Europe. They poured into London at the rate of 1,000 a day. bought out (through June) Stratford's Shakespeare fete, booked all available accommodations for the late summer (Aug. 21-Sept. 10) Edinburgh Festival. In Madrid all hotels were filled, and at the bullfights, Americans sat in the best seats (shade). At 11 o'clock one night last week, no fewer than 75 Americans were happily throwing coins into Rome's famed Trevi Fountain, thus, according to legend, ensuring a return trip.

The Other Side. In the U.S. reservation clerks and travel agents were hard pressed to keep up with jingling telephones and lines at the ticket counters. Though airline tickets on first-class nights abroad are still in fair supply, tourist flights have been almost sold out. TWA's tourist nights for June are 85% booked, and Pan American's tourist runs are reserved from 60 to 90 days ahead. Ocean liners are even more popular. The U.S. Lines' 1,700-passenger United States and 950-passenger America are booked solid for all tourist and cabin classes until August. For the critical eastbound season (June 1-July 15), Cunard's Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth have not a single cabin available.

Both group travel and package tours are booming. Stenographers, farmers, mountain climbers are banding together to book their own special excursions. In Manhattan 25 photographers will take off in July for a 30-day picture-taking swing through Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland, five other countries; a group of 100 congressional secretaries will sail in midsummer to escape Washington's heat. Last December American Express offered 19 Banner Tours to Europe (42 days for $1,225 to $1,645), sold them out by February, had to add more to meet the demand. Its de luxe student tours (54 days for $1,232 to $1.650) were sold out in 3½ weeks.

The airlines' installment-plan vacation (10% down, up to 20 months to pay) is bringing in new customers every day. Some travel managers object on the ground that it requires more paperwork and hurts future business. Said one Chicago agent: "If you buy a car by installments, you've got something to look at and use. Once you've taken a vacation, you've got nothing left but a memory." But Pan American, by pushing its installment plan, boosted sales $4,200,000 last year, expects that it will top $7,000,000 (6% of all business) this year.