Tourism has become a very big business. For Spain, Italy and Greece it is the largest 1 resource of foreign exchange, and even for Britain, it is the fourth. Faced with this huge new income, no government can afford to look 2 down on the business; questions of hotel bathrooms, beach umbrellas and ice-cream sales are now 3 discussed by ministers of tourism with solemn expertise. Before the Second World War the tourist industry was widely 4 regarded
as being stupid. But tourism has become a new industry, as trade business used 5 to do; in Spain, Italy, Greece and much of Eastern Europe, new road systems have opened up in the country, first to tourists, and 6 then to industry and locals.
Much 7of tourism is a nationalized industry, a key part of national planning. In a place west of Marseilles, the French government is killing mosquitoes and 8 building six big vacation places to 9 attract nearly a million tourists. In Eastern Europe, a whole new seaside culture has sprung up over the last few years: the governments have greatly benefited when tourists from the West multiplied from half a million four years 10 ago to nearly two million last year.