as the first. Certainly the task before you is not an easy one. Tour-
ism is not an industry made of bricks and mortar—it is hard to pin
down. We have become used to the term "tourist industry, " and cer-
tainly there are many good economic reasons why we should think
hard about the business aspects of vacation travel. I am sure that
you will hear much about such things during the course of the day.
For my part, however, I would like to venture a few broader thoughts
which perhaps will be useful to keep in mind as we examine how
best to attract more tourist dollars.

Tourists, after all, are not a commodity. They are not something
we go out and haul in like shad or salmon. I don't think the man-
ager of this famous Sheraton Belvedere Hotel goes home at night and
says to his wife, "Guess what, dear, I just caught a big one today-
six feet, two inches, all the way from Minnesota — thought I had a
good one from New Jersey, too, but he was too small—had to throw
him back. " For tourists—and I can't help thinking there must be a
better word for them than that—are nothing more or less than people.
They are not just people like you and me—they are you and me. If
ever we were dealing with a subject we ought to be able to under-
stand, this is it. All of us travel, both on business and pleasure, and
when we do we are—all of us—tourists. And when we are tourists, we
all know how we like to be treated. I am sure that during the day
you will hear a great deal about the tourist facilities that are avail-
able—as well as the facilities that are not available—here in Mary-
land. But the presence or absence of faculties is not everything—not
be a long shot. Even more important than facilities is attitude. And
I'd like to talk a little bit about that.

Attitude is that indefinable something that makes a place pleasant
or unpleasant to visit. How many times have you looked forward to
going to dinner in a specially recommended restaurant and had your
evening ruined by discourteous treatment or surly service? And, by
the same token, how many times have you hesitantly stopped at a
nondescript roadside diner and had your whole day improved by a
cordial greeting and a pleasant atmosphere? Sometimes I think that
we tend to forget these simple truths in our overly-materialistic dis-
cussion of the tourist "industry. "

In France this summer they had some sort of a contest in which
the government gave prizes to those citizens receiving the most cita-
tions for smiling at visitors. In Maryland, thank goodness, we don't
have to bribe people to smile at one another. Smiling, politeness and

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