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By coach, by train, by ship, and by plane, millions of tourists annually
depart from
home like migrating summer birds. They provide the best possible evidence to prove that the world is not nearly as big as it used to be.
For the modern tourist is no Marco Polo. He ventures forth into
the unknown and returns home in a matter of weeks, not years.
Furthermore, he is armed with pamphlets, maps and weighty
guidebooks which tell him where to go and how to get there, and where
to stay, what to see and what to eat when he arrives. There are travel
agencies everywhere to cater for his needs and make all the necessary
preparations for him. They make out ambitious programs and promise
to whisk him through as many as six countries in fourteen days or, if he
is in a hurry, they will cover much the same ground in eight or less.
The tourist begins planning his
campaign
in the dismal winter
months. Spread out before him on the floor is a splendid array of
brightly－colored leaflets, all of them equally tempting. Now is the
time for big decisions to be made, for a fortnight’s holiday is not to
be squandered lightly. Would he like to go to a place where the
sun shines all the year round ?Would he like to taste the rare
delicious of a distant seaside restaurant? And above all, would he
like to visit a spot where there are no other tourists? It is all there
for the asking. Shivering before the fire and armed with paper and
pencil, the tourist makes rapid calculations. It takes him a long
time to decide in which particular paradise he should invest his
hard-earned money.
 Once he had make up one’s mind
,the tourist is free from
worry. He now has something definiteto discuss with his friends at the
office. They listen with envy as he talks knowledgeably about a
stretch of coastline which is two thousand miles away. These
poor old stay-at-homes wonder how he came to be so well
informed and beg him to send them postcards. In the tourist’s
mind there is now a little haven of peace and quiet which he can
retire to when life gets too much for him. The idea that he will
visit a place where the inhabitants do not know what an
overcoat is consoles and comforts him during the bitter winter
months．
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depart
from