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[starlagurl]

This kind of goes with that notorious post on boycotting countries....

Overseas arrivals in the U.S. have declined 11 per cent this decade, from 26 million in 2000 to 23 million in 2007. That's all happening while the travel industry as a whole grows 6 per cent per year!

From declining travel visas, to only-English signs in abundance, it seems that visiting the states is getting more and more difficult. Especially for people who are not from the list of 29 countries whose residents can visit the US without a visa. For some perspective, Canada's list is 50 countries long. In theory, it's easier for a Mexican resident to visit Europe, than it is for him/her to visit the US. It's completely astounding!

The declining dollar is supposed to bring more tourism, and I wonder if it really will. Especially with an attitude like this.

What do you think? Are Americans too mean for international tourism? Even though it's a beautiful country, is the red tape and crass attitude getting in the way?

When you hear all that bad news about the American economy, it seems that tourism should be something they should be embracing. I think it's time to change some tourism policies, no?

Link to the World Hum article that inspired me.

[lraleigh]

BUT:

"The level of Canadian travel to the United States observed in the past six months has been the highest since 1998," Statistics Canada reported.

IT isn't crime, as crime is falling fast in the US. Aside from gun related crimes (down 50%), crime in the US is similar to other developed countries. I know America can be violent as I've worked in one of the most violent of them all, where the neighbor of our community garden was shot.

Read Bomb the Suburbs by Upski for an interesting take on all this "US dangerous place stuff" (Upski crashed on my couch as he was walking in all the most "dangerous" places in America at night, to prove they weren't that dangerous). I've shed my blood as well because of a racial hate crime, but have forgiven.

Could be the border control folks, but...

Things go up. Things go down. And the US travel industry is large both with both foreign and domestic travelers. Most of the growth will be in the newbees, not in the US or Canada or France. I'd guess Eastern Europe tourism is really growing, by contrast.

Blame the media.

Looking at Travelpods, most travelers go from city to city, thinking they can see the US this way...Of course, you can know what the cities are like from this, but some of the best of America is outside the cities in the countryside.

And there are plenty of people from all countries of the world. Met an American in Egypt who was Palestinian for example. Over 10% of the country are foreign-born.

Somehow, I detect an anti-American bias in how this thread was presented, hmmmmmm. That's ok, I can understand that.

BUT I could easily ask: Why people stay away from Canada? Are they jerks? Why are Germans scared to travel to Canada? Do they have crass attitudes? Do they molest sheep?

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2008/05/20/travel.html

I won't ask that question, however, because its not a fair question if you're a Canadian. All countries have their trouble-makers and their gurus and their gems and their animal buggerers and those people who will become your friends.

That said, boundaries are pointless in so many ways and talk like this is really counter-productive to travel and understanding (as are some difficult border guards). America definitely needs some help in the karma department for sure, but let's not hide behind easily-manipulated statistics...

Ok...all that over with, whenever I'm settled, ya'll can crash on my couch. (I don't own a gun)

peace.