TABLE 4.-UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TOURIST ACCOUNT, 1932-33

1 Estimate prepared on basis of post-card questionnaire returns. See appendix C.

2 Estimate prepared by Dominion Bureau of Statistics.

3 Classification by Mexican Department of Immigration. See appendix D. 4 See appendix D.

5 These areas are roughly divided into two parts: (1) those in which United States citizens are required to have passports to gain entry, and (2) those in which passports are not required. The latter include Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala (except under certain conditions), Haiti, Mexico (in case of direct entry), Panama, British Honduras, and British West Indies (including Bermuda). Owing to the applicability of the questionnaire returns, several nonpassport countries, notably Paraguay and Uruguay, are included in the "passport areas." See appendix E for discussion of individual items.

6 These are the balance-of-payments estimates after deduction was made for tourist expenditures to cover passenger fare on American vessels which, although a tourist outlay, is not a payment to foreigners.

TABLE 5.-CHANGES IN THE INTERNATIONAL TOURIST ACCOUNT OF THE UNITED STATES, 1929-33

So-called "tourist expenditures" abroad represent the outlays of United States citizens and alien residents who visit foreign countries not only for recreation and sight-seeing, but also for business, professional, or educational purposes. In the same category are the estimated foreign expenditures of those United States citizens who are more or less permanently residing abroad and who derive their incomes from sources within the United States. Figures collected by the Department of State show that on January 1, 1933, United States citizens residing permanently abroad numbered 420,000. Excluding approximately 246,000 who resided in Canada, and whose principal source of income in most cases was derived from agricultural pursuits within that country, a great number derive all or part of their funds for personal expenditures from investments, inheritances, or other sources of income in the United States.

Expenditures of alien residents in the United States on trips abroad are included in tourist outlays, even though a certain part of the funds taken back to the home country would, in the absence of such visits, be remitted and therefore included in the estimates of immigrant remittances. Many people combine travel for pleasure with travel for professional, educational, and other purposes. In spite of various exceptions and numerous borderline cases, the outlays abroad by American travelers represent very largely what may be strictly called tourist expenditures. The relative importance of the respective objects of travel in 1933, as reported to the Department of State by passport applicants, is shown in the following summary:

United States tourist expenditures abroad are estimated under a number of separate categories. The two major items are the estimated expenditures of United States motorists in Canada and the estimated outlays of United States citizens in foreign countries which permit admission only through passport. In collecting data on each of these two groups the Finance and Investment Division employs special questionnaire forms, the nature and use of which are discussed in appendixes C and E. For convenience the separate estimates covering the various tourist categories, together with the comparative estimates of 1932 are shown in table 4. (See additional text and tables in appendix E.)

Estimates of United States tourist expenditures in individual foreign countries are shown in table 6. In the use of these estimates special note should be taken of footnote 1.

TABLE 6.-UNITED STATES TOURIST EXPENDITURES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES,

1 The estimates shown in this table are prepared with a view to indicating generally the relative importance of the various foreign countries in United States tourist travel. The data are compiled with the aid and cooperation of the representatives abroad of the Departments of Commerce and State and apply only to the estimated expenditures within each of the respective countries. The aggregate figure is materially less than the estimate of total United States tourist expenditures entered in the balance of payments because it does not include payments to foreign steamship vessels for fare and for expenditures on board ship. Attention is also called to the fact that in several instances the estimates for individual countries show sharp fluctuations in contrast with the general trend. Such irregularities are due chiefly to 3 factors: (1) Difficulty in distinguishing between tourist expenditures and immigrant remittances in the estimates of total outlays ascribed to alien residents in the United States visiting the home country; (2) sharp changes in total outlays resulting from heavy expenditures of a semitourist nature-and not accounted for elsewhere-by a comparatively few wealthy foreign-born or alien residents in the United States visiting the home country at irregular intervals (this factor is obviously important only in the case of countries where our tourist expenditures are normally very small); and (3) the inadequacy of pertinent data in many foreign countries and the difficulties which confront the foreign representatives in attempting to arrive at reasonable estimates.

2 Data not available.

3 Estimate based on year's change in number of United States passengers sailing from American to British ports.

4 Excluding tourists going by sea.

5 Excluding border traffic.

UNITED STATES-CANADIAN TOURIST ACCOUNT

United States tourist expenditures in Canada during 1933 are estimated at $101,000,000, or 45 percent less than in 1932. On the other hand, outlays of Canadian visitors in the United States, estimated at $35,000,000, showed no change as compared with the preceding year.

The net effect of these respective tendencies was a drop of 55 percent in Canada's net receipts from the United States on tourist account. United States tourist expenditures in Canada represent normally one of the most important "invisible imports" in this country's international balance. In 1929 the item was estimated at $296,000,000 (see table 7), or about three times the still substantial figure for 1933. During the same peak year Canadian estimated tourist outlays in the United States aggregated $94,000,000 (see table 8), while Canada's net receipts exceeded $200,000,000 (see table 9). Not only does Canada normally sell more services to our travelers than does any other country, but the total tourist traffic across the Canadian border involves larger total expenditures than that between any other two countries. During the 3-year period 1928-30, estimated expenditures in Canada of United States motorists alone averaged in excess of $200,000,000. Expenditures by United States motor, steamer, and rail visitors account for more than 90 percent of Canada's total tourist

revenue.

TABLE 7.—UNITED STATES TOURIST EXPENDITURES IN CANADA, 1928-33, BY

Table 8.—CANADIAN TOURIST EXPENDITURES IN THE UNITED STATES, 1928-33

TABLE 9.-UNITED STATES-CANADIAN TOURIST EXPENDITURE BALANCE,

6

Among the factors that contributed to the sharp decline during 1933 in the estimated expenditures of United States travelers in Canada were several, such as the low level of business activity, the contraction of incomes, reduced costs, and the drop in the actual number of visitors which have influenced the downward trend in these outlays since 1929. However, in 1933 there were additional influences the combined effects of which led to the exceptionally sharp decline during the year. The Century of Progress Exposition apparently attracted a number of motor travelers who substituted a trip to Chicago for the usual tour north of the border. In other cases the stay in Canada was shortened because the Exposition was the ultimate objective of the trip. Again, it is probable that the legalization of beer and the passing of prohibition in the United States accounted for a drop in the expenditures of our travelers north of the border. A minor but not necessarily negligible factor was the smaller discount on the Canadian dollar, eliminating much of the incentive for bargain buying in Canada which had been somewhat in evidence during 1932.

The

In contrast with the year's trend in United States travel in Canada, the actual number of Canadians visiting the United States in 1933 exceeded the number of visitors in 1932. The number of Canadian motor cars entering the United States increased 9.7 percent over the preceding year, while the estimated number of rail and steamer visitors increased from 227,000 to 285,000, or 25.5 percent. increase in the number of Canadian motor visitors was accompanied, however, by a decline in the expenditures per car from $72 to $59, with the result that total outlays were approximately equal to those of the preceding year. (For details concerning the tourist traffic between the United States and Canada, see appendix C.)

UNITED STATES-MEXICAN TOURIST ACCOUNT

United States tourist expenditures in Mexico fall into two groups: (1) Outlays by United States residents classified as tourists by the Mexican Government, and (2) expenditures by the large number of persons who cross the border daily for pleasure or business. According to the Department of Immigration of the Mexican Government, the number of United States residents who visited Mexico as tourists was 39,096. Approximately 11,000 of these visited Mexico City and their estimated expenditures were $1,650,000, or an average per capita of $150. The remainder visited other interior cities, most of which are less distant from the border than Mexico City. The latter group's per capita average expenditures are estimated at $84, and their total outlays are therefore placed at $2,360,000. The estimated expenditures of United States residents crossing the border on short trips during 1933 were approximately $24,000,000. The total debit item in the balance of payments is therefore entered at $28,000,000, offset in part by an estimate of $4,000,000 to cover expenditures by Mexican residents in the United States. (See appendix D.)

6 The number of United States tourists in Canada did not begin to decline uhtil after 1930, although per capita outlays commenced to fall after 1929.