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A great deal has been written about the economics of transport in recent years. Most of the views expressed, however, deal with transport as an essential industrial factor in the national economy. The importance of the contribution of the transport system to the national economy is very often held up as an end in itself, so much so that the normal considerations of competitive efficiency and meeting consumer demand are not applied. It is quite true, of course, that transport is a public utility and, especially the railways, represents an important element in the stability of the community both strategically and economically. It may perhaps be claimed that far less attention has been paid to tourist aspects of transport in recent years compared with the situation of 50 or even 100 years ago. Admittedly all forms of transport by road, rail, sea and air deal not only with passengers, but also with freight, and for many transport companies the tourist demand is a marginal one. Nevertheless from the tourist's point of view transport charges are an essential factor in determining his own expenditure and therefore transport charges play an important role in limiting the expenditure of the whole of the tourist trade.

In an article printed in “The Tourist Review” a few years ago, we gave a general analysis of the British Travel Market. A sample survey carried out by the BTHA into the market for holiday‐making in Britain by British residents has brought to light most interesting and valuable data characterising British travel to the continent. We are much indebted to the BTHA for permission to analyse this survey—we hope that the results which we give below will be studied with interest by our European friends.

Perhaps the most interesting development in the tourist trade, certainly in passenger transport after the war, has taken place on the North Atlantic, now the best‐developed long distance route in the world. It is surprising to think that before the war there was not one single regular passenger service by air between Europe and North America and the entire traffic was dependent on sea transport. From the figures quoted below the remarkable progress of air transport is shown very clearly.

Fundamental notions of economic theory based on a static approach are falling into disuse, and the new dynamic economics is hampered in its progress by the belated development of social research and industrial psychology. In a sense, economists have hardly had time to digest the revolutionary Keyoensian doctrines, but already find that they are out‐moded. Particularly embarrassing for present day problems is the fact that there has not been sufficient time to study fully the effects of variations in the balance of international payments on the propensity to consume and on employment. It is the policy in Western Europe, for example, to isolate the effects of a semipermanent imbalance in international payments. These countries are pledged not only to maintain but to raise the high standard of living however slightly in the immediate future. In this essay a brief attempt is made to show that travel is an important factor which research to this end cannot afford to neglect.

The revolution in transport during the 19th century and the great rise of personal incomes in the countries of Western Europe multiplied a hundredfold the numbers of people travelling for business and pleasure outside their own country. It was not long, however, before governments realised that this expansion in the movement of people was accompanied by movement of money across frontiers. Travellers, particularly the pleasure travellers, spent money liberally to pay for accommodation, transport, etc., but there was also a certain amount of capital movement connected with travel. This new demand for services and other facilities led to the growth and development of a great hotel and catering industry and entailed heavy capital investment. Travel came to be regarded as a new industry. Indeed, most of the Western European countries considered it an important item in their export trade, and in the 20th century, after 1918, travel began to be treated as a commodity in international trade. By many it was considered a luxury at a time when trading conditions were unfavourable, and thus restrictions were frequently placed on the movement of travellers, who also came to be suspected as likely smugglers of goods and capital. And so it happened that even when the tourist was not prevented from obtaining foreign exchange for travel, his movements were suspected and restricted for fear of criminal activity.

Most tourist experts agree that travel is a two‐way business as an international trade. While every country is anxious to increase its exports, it is in fact equally important to think about imports. The Tourist Review has published a number of interesting articles about tourist promotion and, together with other journals, has given a great deal of information on tourism as an export. This article, however, deals with Britain as a tourist market. It is written in the hope that tourist experts in other countries will from time to time report on their national travel market and so increase the fund of knowledge of the method and technique in developing world travel.

Tourism grew up in laissez faire liberalism and has suffered ever since from the era of control and planning. This suggests a need for a reassessment of the place of the tourist industry in the present economic state of the world.

Although there is considerable scholarly research on advertising self‐regulation in the USA, there is no research at all on the unique problems that comparative advertising created for those involved in the industry's self‐regulation. This study aims to address this gap in the literature with an historical analysis of the industry's efforts to respond to the widespread adoption of comparative advertising during the twentieth century.

The study's primary and secondary sources consist of nearly 640 articles collected from historical and contemporary trade journals. The analysis focuses on two research questions: When did calls for the reform and regulation of comparative advertising appear, why did they appear, and who did advertisers believe should be responsible? and Why did advertisers and industry observers believe comparative advertising should be regulated, and what were the consequences of their self‐regulation efforts and initiatives?

The paper finds that industry calls for comparative advertising reform began to appear during the Depression and peaked during the most contentious period of self‐regulation, the 1970s. The findings show that during the 1930s, members of the industry mostly abandoned their efforts to manage what they considered unfair business practices, including explicit comparative advertising, by shaping government policy. The findings also reveal that the issues of disparagement of competitors and the misappropriation of their brand names and trademarks set the stage for an extraordinary conflict between the industry, its self‐regulators, and the Federal Trade Commission.

The findings offer some new and interesting insights into the consequences that can occur when advertisers choose to employ explicit comparative advertising, or what has been called “the hardest sell of all”; the history of advertising self‐regulation in the USA; and the complex relationships among consumerism, political and economic ideology, and industry self‐regulation.

THE following list of contracts placed by the Air Ministry during September is extracted from the October issue of The Ministry of Labour Gazette:

It is worthwhile from time to time to attempt to disentangle the main trends form the mass of statistics, facts and reports about the international tourist movement and try to discover the general direction of the development of the industry.