Page Eight
THE SUMMER DAILY
Saturday, August 1], 1973
Fe w Russians touring in U. S.
By JAMES R. PEIPERT
Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW '' - American tour-
ists are flacking in again this
year, trantping arond the Freni-
lh these wirm, spring days in
Swhite sh:>os 'ad stat -pressed
clthes.
Bttt the t(triris t in the siot-
er directirn is stti onty a trick-
le. t)espite the government's
warming op towards the West, it
probhly will be a long time be-
fore hsloads of camersI-toting
So iel tonrists become part of
the crowds at the Washington
monument or D isneyland.
ACCORDING TO the state tra-
vel agency, Intourist, 66,164
Americans came to Russia as
tourists in 1972, and Intourist
officials are hoping for more this
year.
Only 340 Soviets, however, made
tourist trips to the United States
during the same year. All went
with extremely restricted groups
and most "for reasons that serve
the national interests rather than
an individual purpose," says U.S.
consular officers.
The picture this year looks
much the same. The U.S. Embas-
sy and American Express, which
arranges all Soviet tourist journ-
eys to America, report no more
than 100 Soviet "tourists" for
the first five months of 1973.
"THE CONCLUSION we can
draw," remarked one consular
officer, "is that there will be no
shar incre ise this year in Soviet
tourism to America -'
The controled press is present-
ing a less hiased vies of the
United States these dOss since
Communist party chief Leonid
Brezhnev's visit to Washington,
line 18-21. But this does not
mean more Soviets will get to see
for themselves the bulwark of
capitalism.
Soviet authorities are apparent-
ly still far from convinced that
citizens who go abroad as tourists
will always be willing to return
home. And if they do, the authori-
ties reason, there's no telling
what oort of "subversive" no-
tions they might bring hack with
them.
HE REFUSED to concede, at
first, that ideology may be a
hindrance. But when pressed he
confided:
"Look, you don't remember
those dark days of the 1950s. I
do. Nobody was going abroad
then. Now we have several mil-
lion people loyal enough to travel
abroad."
Proof of loyalty as a prerequis-
AMERICAN TOURISTS flock to Moscow to see such attractions as the
Georgian state dance company of Tiflis. However, Russian tourism in
the U.S. is a mere trickle.
- -
DIA NAROSS S BILLIE HOLIDAY
7Np.m.S
THE
BLUES
Filmed in PANAVIiON' In COLOR APAPARAOUN-T PICTU
PLUS!
ite for foreign travel requires de-
tailed questionnaires listing a I
places of residence and employ-
ment, character references from
party committees and employers,
a thorough medical examination,
and an all-important nterview at
the party's central committee in
Moscow.
It takes weeks of scurrying
from one bureaucrat to the next,
followed by a period of anxious
waiting. Sometimes passports are
not issued until tourists get to
the airport and they cannot be
sure until then that they will ac-
tually make the trip.
LAST YEAR, for example, 89
person" were apparently dropped
in the final stages of the screen-
ing process. The U.S. Embassy
said it issued 429 tourist visas,
but American Express said it
processed only 340 Soviet tourists.
"The weeding-out process is all
very formalized," said a U.S.
consular officer, "and you have
no people slipping in as casual
tourists."
Soviet citizens do go to Amer-
ica, however, for nontourist pur-
poses.
The embassy said it issued
about 4,500 visas in 1972 to mem-
bers of official Soviet delegations
-in such fields as trade, science,
space and sports. Another 969
Soviets got visas to vi
tives in America.
EVEN COUNTING thes
is a drastic imbalancec
between the two countrie
is one of the factors t
among Russians a deepc
about and ignorance of t
ed States.
The right of Americans
el is a topic frequently
up by Russians to Americ
es at a U.S. exchange ;x
tourism and leisure, whit
ed in May in Moscow for
long tour of six Soviet ci
"It boggles their mind
one of the 22 Russian-s
guides, that Americans+
a passport in a few day:
no exit visa is needed t
the country, that America
ers between Canada and
are open, and that 'he U
ernment places few res
on foreign travel by its
Very stringent procedu
ply here even if a Russia
only a neighboring Co
country.
"I'M A SOCIALIST an
lieve in the system,"a
Russian once confided.
bothers me that I can't
on a plane and go to, s
don or Paris."
American Express, whi
lowed- to operate in Mo
and FILMWAYS, INC. present
9:30 p.m.JACK LEMMON
in A MARTIN RANSOHOF Production
"SAVE THE TIGER"
co-starring JACK GILFORD IOLORvAissn- viiiMN X .
7 ISQUITE SIMPLY,
THE BEST AMERICAN FILM
I'VE SEEN THIS YEAR! "_N.Y7E;b
Fri., Sat. )ARINFSun.H
night at .1??'? Mat.
11 :30 3,5 pm.
MARTiNBASAM. RiCHARBENJAMIN. ARItHtARtUNKEt JACK GIMDiHlfllOHENRY lSNIMARI AMTHONYPlRrInS, PAuAPRENtiSS
MATilNSH ,j.NII ORSON WEI SE I ASIREEIlSCREENPLAYu8tBtCKHENRY PROIiCt BY JOHN CAlt&MARTiNBASBSf-
OIRECTEOBY MIKE W iOS nwtgnm m srcrasla~tt+crnsoRr tact rW/m i ra a u s wam s u
Thurs. Fri. Sat.
Separate Admission Only $1.50
AOULTS ONLY
st Fim ever made.". A Goldstein
L A
CHANCEE:
r frrr {rr
TO
rrf
EVER
SEE
.
I
sit reli- retirn for an Intourist s'urm'is:
in New York, is making efforts to
increase the Soviet half of the
e, there tourist exchange.
of visits The company recentl,' printed
This thousands of brochure, , rinRus-
breeding sian and filled with pictures of
huriosit- surfers, dancing Indians, Times
.he Unit- Square, San Francisco cable cars
and the Golden Gate Bridge.
to .ra'-
brought THE BROCHURES describe
n guid- trips of fixed itinerary from Mos-
hibit on cow, and are for distribution in
ch open- Russia. But that is a formidable
a year- problem in itself.
i-es.
s," said Michael Miller, who runs t h e
peaking American Express operation
cat get here, said he managed to dis
that tribute about 75 brochures to top
to leave people in various Soviet mm-
a oud- istrien, the people who ultimate-
Mexico ly organize "tourist" trips and
.S. gov- allot the hard currency for them.
trictions "I have 4,500 more brochures
citizens. stacked up in the lobby all ready
ires ap- to shoot out," Miller said, "but
tn visits I don't have the names to shoot
mmuniyt them out to."
LIKE REPRESENTATIVES of
id I lie- other Western companies based
a young in Moscow, Miller's activities are
"But it far more restricted than those of
just get his Soviet counterparts in t h e
ay, Lon- West.
ch is al- He cannot, for example, mail
scow in out advertising pamphlets or
take out ads in newspapers.
Miller also complained he is
allowed no personal contact with
the Soviet tourists. He said ha
gets a letter from Intourist list-
ing the names of prospective
tourists but never sees t h e i r
faces.
It is Intourist, too, that re-
quests certain cities, sights or in-
stitutions be included in a given
tour.
A TYPICAL TRIP, Miller said,
might include New York, Wash-
ington, Chicago, San Francisco
and Los Angeles. But the com-
pany's brochure also describes
stops at U.S. space facilities in
Houston and Huntsville, Ala.
Among the "special interest"
requests made by one Soviet
"tourist" group, Miller said, were
a visit to Columbia University',s
business school and meetings with
some of its economists and a
tour of the Library of Con-
gress in Washington.
Soviet visitors to Chicago want-
ed to see alight-industry euter-
prise, a secondary school and a
public library. In San Francisco,
Soviet tourists asked to visit a
shipbuilding yard and scientific
establishments in suburban Berk-
A eley.
"LOS ANGELES was very typi-
cal," Miller said, "Hollywood,
Disneyland and a farm-"