Imperial Valley Press

WHO SAYS TOURIST TRAVEL MEANS NOTHING?

Now and then we hear some disgruntled individual who doesn't believe in advertising, anyway—and his business is usually as big as a gnat's eyebrow—complain against attempts to attract tourist travel to Imperial Valley.

"What's the use of it?" he asks. "They just whiz through—don't stop. They're a bigger problem on the highways than they are an asset in the stores."

Well, that's one man's idea.

Phoenix has another idea. It is that tourist travel does pay—and that it pays big. In Phoenix, the thought was the father of reality.

An executive of the United Press visited El Centro last week. He had just been to Phoenix. Trained observer that he is, he noticed especially a thing which, he said, nobody could help noticing. He translated it into terms of his own experience.

Stopping at a hotel, the United Press man took his car to the hotel's garage. They didn't have room to accommodate it. There were too many patrons. Every hotel, and almost every storage garage in Phoenix told the same story. Why the boom? Well, the city is enjoying one of the best tourist seasons in many years.

It is reaping thousands of dollars for its local stores and other establishments. Tourists are paying Phoenix plenty in good, hard cash.

Phoenix has nothing that Imperial Valley does not have, except, perhaps, size. Phoenix is larger because it has made the most of its opportunities. Otherwise, Imperial Valley actually has more to offer the tourist, or even the winter resident. The trouble is that the things we have to offer are not developed.