warning that they do not meet AAA standards and are merely listed as a service to members who wish to stay in the parks.

In order to carry out a national tourism policy, it seems to us that a high-level coordinating mechanism, as suggested in the tourism study, is a necessity. We further believe that it should be established in the Executive Office. But we want to make it clear that we are not calling for a new supra-agency which would further regulate the travel industry and its agents. There's too much regulation already. We do support a mechanism in which the voice of the private sector will be heard before plans are completed and carried out.

Finally, while we are in general agreement with the study's proposed seven goals and objectives, we believe that they could stand some further refinement. For example, the section on consumer goals and objectives concentrates too much on what is going to be done to or for the consumer. This is well and good, but there must also be an attempt to find out from the consumer his opinions and needs in the field of tourism. But these are relatively minor matters which can be corrected.

In conclusion, we believe that the proposals for a national tourism policy and a national travel and recreation policy council are ideas whose time has come.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Senator INOUYE. I thank you, sir. And as a member of AAA, I thank you for starting my battery all the time. You have given me good service so I have no complaints there.

I think your point is well taken. I think you should get together with Mr. Hummel about these accommodations in some of our national parks. Is this true, that some of our accommodations are that bad?

Mr. HUMMEL. Yes. Unfortunately, that's true, and there is discouragement rather than encouragement to improve the facilities in the parks. There's an elitist approach, that the sooner we get rid of facilities to accommodate people in the park, particularly on an overnight basis, the sooner the parks will return to their pristine nature as the people now say they should be.

Senator INOUYE. Are these accommodations provided by concessioners or by the Government?

Mr. HUMMEL. They are provided by concessioners, but require the approval of the Government for any change to be made.

Senator INOUYE. And the Government is not in favor of improvement?

Mr. HUMMEL. They have discouraged it under the pressure of the environmentalists who want the facilities removed from the parks and established outside the park bounds.

Mr. DE LORENEZI. This controversy has been going on for a number of years. We have absolutely enormous files on it.

Senator INOUYE. I can tell you this much, that the accommodation we have at the Hawaiian Volcano National Park is pretty good.

Mr. DE LORENZI. There are some good ones, but there are some that are abysmal.

Senator INOUYE. Could you, for the record, provide a list of those? I'd like to provide them to the committee in charge of the Department of the Interior.

Mr. DE LORENZI. I'd be glad to. I would be glad to send you a copy of the tourbooks in which we list them separately with the caveat.1

1 The material referred to is in the committee files.

Senator INOUYE. I'd be interested in receiving that because I was under the impression I could take my wife and son to any one of these places and be assured of good accommodations.

Mr. HUMMEL. Unfortunately, that's not true. For 3 years I ran the Yosemite National Park concessioner service, which is probably one of the better known parks in the United States, and I was appalled when I got there to find that 60 percent of their facilities are not even equipped with bathing facilities available and 406 of them are tents that the present concessioner has tried for 3 years to improve and has been prevented from doing so, and the master plan that was just released last week calls for a replacement of some tents and a reduction of considerable amount of facilities, but very little in the way of improvement of the facilities, even though the concessioner has been urging for 3 years that these facilities should be phased out and replaced with better accommodations, more acceptable to the public.

Senator INOUYE. Well, I'd better change my plans. I was planning on a grand tour of the United States to expose my son to the great beauties of the 50 States, but I think I will stick with the cities, from what you tell me.

Mr. DE LORENZI. Check with AAA in advance. We also have some pretty good ones listed.

Mr. TOOHEY. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Manfred suggests that you might wish to stay at TraveLodge.

Senator INOUYE. I'm a good friend of Bill Walton, too.

Mr. TOOHEY. A brief statement now, Mr. Chairman, from the executive vice president of the National Tour Brokers Association, W. James Host.

STATEMENT OF W. JAMES HOST, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL TOUR BROKERS ASSOCIATION

Mr. HOST. Mr. Chairman, as executive vice president of one of the Nation's major travel trade organizations, I am deeply appreciative of the opportunity to add my very brief remarks to those of Mr. Manfred and others relative to the national tourism policy study's final report.

As a former State government official in Kentucky responsible for the promotion of tourism, I am deeply concerned about the lack of knowledge relative to tourism in our Nation's capital. Most State governments have recognized the importance of tourism for a number of years and have effectively coordinated their activities relative to the promotion of tourism because of the very close supervision provided by the States and the Governors, as illustrated today by Governor Blanton.

I am convinced therefore, Mr. Chairman, that the proposal as conveyed to you today by Mr. Manfred, although it is an excellent one, will totally fail unless the Congress emphasizes to the President that the Director of the proposed Council should be confirmed by the Senate and should be an individual who is given the kind of authority within the White House to be on a Cabinet communicative level. Unless the Director of this Council has the effectiveness to communicate with Cabinet officials and has the weight and authority of the President and the Congress behind him, the Council, in my opinion, will be about as ef

fective as Leon Spinks was against my fellow Kentuckian, Mohammad Ali.

I'm not in favor of constructing a bureaucratic agency and I'm not in favor of hiring a lot of new Federal employees. I'm not in favor, as a taxpayer, of seeing Government continue to grow. I am in favor, however, of seeing Government take advantage of and for the first time really recognize the importance of tourism by the construction of this council with a totally effective director which will then return many more tax dollars to the Federal Government than it will cost.

Thank you for allowing me to express my feelings.

Senator INOUYE. I think you have brought up a very important point. For many years most of the men who have filled the position of director of the United States Travel Service were selected not because of their professional know-how or the expertise or their involvement in the business. Some were selected because they were excellent fund raisers. Others were selected because of their loyal service in the political organization. Some of us in the Senate have considered the possibility of a unique selection system. For example, calling upon a panel made up of, say, State directors of transportation travel organizations, to recommend a list of, say, five names to the President from which he would have to select. Otherwise, it's going to be a straight political appointment—a former Governor who got defeated at the polls, a U.S. Senator who decided to retire because the polls showed that he won't make it; some Congressman who voted the right way all the time but couldn't quite make it at the polls again; or someone who is good at fund raising.

#

Because if we just put in the legislation that he should be knowledgeable of the business, all of us here consider ourselves knowledgeable-could DATO be thinking about that?

Mr. TоOHEY. Certainly, Senator. I think that's an excellent idea. Senator INOUYE. Otherwise, you're going to be stuck once again, as we have during most of the life of USTS, with people who won't know the difference between a travel agent and a broker and the AAA. Mr. TOOHEY. Amen.

Senator INOUYE. So I agree with you, I dont' want to see any added bureaucracy. I don't wish to see an organization just for the sake of building one. I would like to see an organization which is committed, with the proper mandate of the President and the Congress, to take advantage of all that money floating around begging to be grabbed. And as many of you have pointed out, of all the industries in the United States, this one has the best employment potential. This is the least polluting of all, and this takes up the least space of all. We were asking for a miracle in this one and we got a miracle, but no one seems to see it.

If you can come up with a suggestion on the selection process for the man in charge, or the woman in charge, I would be personally appreciative because it has to be constitutional for one thing, but you have ample precedent. For example, we have commissions that are continually created by acts of Congress in which the appointing process would be a recommendation from the Governors of certain States and so many names from which the President will select. So the President's appointive power has been constitutionally restricted. Now we can do that.

What I would like to have is some recommending organization and with 1,200 members who would be representative?

Mr. TOOHEY. Well, the industry, as you know, Senator, is extraordinarily diversified. I think there is an answer to it and certainly DATO will make a recommendation to you as to how to answer that problem.

Senator INOUYE. It would be very helpful. Then I think you can assure yourselves that whoever is appointed will be somebody that you fellows can work with.

Mr. TOOHEY. That's important.

Senator INOUYE. Does anybody else wish to make a statement? Mr. ToоHEY. The vice president for Marketing of Amtrak, Mr. Alfred Michaud.

Senator INOUYE. How's the strike coming along?

STATEMENT OF ALFRED A. MICHAUD, VICE PRESIDENT,
MARKETING, AMTRAK

Mr. MICHAUD. Tightly. I think tomorrow will be a better day for us than today.

Senator INOUYE. It's not over yet?

Mr. MICHAUD. No, sir.

I am Alfred A. Michaud, vice president of Marketing for Amtrak. I'm also a member of the board of DATO and a member of the DATO International Committee, and I'm chairman of the U.S. Travel Data Center and a Fellow of the Institute of Certified Travel Agents.

Amtrak is a wholesale mover of people along with the airline and bus industries. Automobiles are retail movers of people.

The idea of a national tourism policy, as outlined at this hearing, will actively encourage improving efficiency of people transportation. The creation of the national tourism policy will directly impact and relate positively to the oft discussed critical subject of a national transportation policy. The continued lack of a national tourism policy holds back the direction and development of more effective people transportation. Effective passenger transportation is critically relevant to the acknowledged need to provide mobility to people while conserving energy.

The result of a national tourism policy addressing transportation improvements could produce a more energy efficient people distribution system integrating highly efficient common carirer service with localized passenger distribution systems such as tour buses, car rentals, local buses and applicable mass transit.

We at Amtrak have seen the concept work in Chicago, Duluth, and in over 200 other U.S. cities. Such a policy would make our park systems, resorts, vacation sites, lodgings, recreation areas-places people want to go-available to more people using more of our highly efficient national transportation systems.

Thank you, Senator.

Senator INOUYE. Are you satisfied that the recommendation of the Arthur D. Little study adequately covers the transportation needs? Mr. MICHAUD. No, sir. I think it briefly skirted it, although one of the 45 more or less objectives refers to energy efficiency, I don't believe the study interrelated energy with the total development of the

35-478-1978- -12

tourism policy which, of course, provides an umbrella under which energy and the national transportation policy would relate to tourism. Senator INOUYE. Because without transportation you don't have a business.

Mr. MICHAUD. Yes, sir. That's why we feel that transportation is an issue that will be served so strongly by the development of the tourism polic

Senator INOUYE. I'd like to invite you and others who are involved in the transportation aspect of tourism to suggest appropriate words to carry out the transportation part of the business.

Mr. MICHAUD. We'd be glad to do it.

Senator INOUYE. Because my study seems to indicate likewise that it was rather weak in that portion.

Mr. TOOHEY. Senator, if you have the endurance and patience, I have a final statement.

STATEMENT OF WILLIAM D. TOOHEY, PRESIDENT, DISCOVER AMERICA TRAVEL ORGANIZATIONS, INC.

Mr. TооHEY. Mr. Chairman, we have heard 3 days of testimony on the NTPS final report, and it truly has been an impressive experience. These hearings have witnessed an unprecedented mobilization of all those extraordinarily diverse forces involved in the $115 billion travel industry.

We have heard from labor and consumer organizations, chief executive officers of airlines, hotel chains, travel companies, and officials of major travel industry associations.

Despite the diversity of the travel industry, these 3 days have seen a broad coming together of opinion and general support of the basic Federal policy and coordination recommendations of the final study report.

Such concordance was not anticipated, Mr. Chairman, but it has occurred. We are all in agreement that travel is not only a vital economic activity, but an integral part of our way of life in America. We agree that tourism's interests should therefore be reflected in the formulation of U.S. Government policy, but since its contributions have been understated and underappreciated, tourism has not yet received the consideration it deserves from the Federal Government. We further agree that the situation is potentially harmful to this Nation and should be remedied. The best remedy under present known facts and conditions is to formulate a national statement of policy regarding tourism, to create a high-level Council to coordinate any existing Government programs affecting tourism, and to enact both the policy statement and the Council into law so that they have permanence.

We also agree that as the policy study final report recommends, the council should be created as an independent body headed by a toplevel economic adviser to the President. We don't espouse creation of a vast new bureaucracy, and we are pleased to note the final report proposes a small staff of the Council and a modest expenditure of funds.

Mr. Chairman, the climate of opinion and degree of consensus revealed by these hearings have been truly remarkable. I believe it's even in large measure a tribute to your enduring efforts. You have