The United States is the only major country in the world

The USA seems like a distinctly unattractive place to visit when you hear about things like that happening. Even if you know you won't be likely to commit those infractions, you don't want to visit a society where such things are allowed to happen routinely. Where contempt for, and ignorance of the outside world is actually admired and considered patriotic. Where Sikhs got shot for being "towelheads" after 9-11, and where a British Sikh family (Dad, Mum, small and medium kids) were removed in shackles from an NY tour bus because a passenger felt "threatened" by them and called the cops. Those "white Britons with names like Smith and Jones" (Why bring their colour and name into it, incidentally?) are, by and large, proud of their multicultural society, and are horrified to hear about such things.

As for the entry procedures, we get the impression that they don't really want us all that much!

I was at the London Eurostar terminal once, having just got off a train from Paris, where I heard an American moaning to his companions about how there was one queue (line) for UK and EU citizens to enter the UK, and another for everybody else (including him and his family). "We saved their asses from the Germans!" etc etc. A lot of people heard him, including a German guy who winked at me. I wanted to ask him about the lines at JFK, but my EU line was moving so fast that he dwindled rapidly into the distance...

I had no trouble last year at Newark, New Jersey airport. I was whisked straight through in 20 seconds.

Contrex
Thanks for your contribution.
McTag
Be glad that you had not endured those ordeal like others.
The fact is this.
USA's regulations in the name of security chase the tourists away.
If I am wrong i stand for correction please.
Thank you both

Then there is of course, tourists getting jailed for making stupid bomb jokes while passing through security.

Stupid, yes, but jailable? (the one I recall, was imprisoned for 6 months).

Vikorr
You are very corect to recollect that episode.
Thanks
Here are some reactions about this topic.



The editor of Newsweek International, Fareed Zakaria, writes in his latest column - spread around the world - about "America the Unwelcoming." Zakaria says that international tourism to the US is lagging, mostly due to foreigners complaining about onerous US Customs.

Zakaria is parroting the line fed by an organized disinformation campaign by the US tourism industry, meant to get a $200-million tourism fund out of the US Congress, appealing to anti-Patriot Act Democrats there by bashing necessary border controls. This manipulative grab for corporate welfare pork is despicable, and even moreso when launched by a wealthy industry well capable of promoting its own interests.

I wrote about it a few weeks ago. The post is below. I'll have more from my investigation shortly.


November 2, 2007

Tourism Industry Trashes U.S.

AFP newswire delivers an unexamined press release from the "Discover America" tourism association that, "'Unwelcoming' US sees sharp fall in visitors since 9/11."

Chairman Stevan Porter lamented the "extraordinary decline" in the number of overseas visitors to the United States, while the advocacy group's executive director, Geoff Freeman, blamed the slump on the shabby welcome many foreigners feel they get in the United States.

"It's clear what's keeping people away in the post-9/11 environment: it is the perception around the world that travelers aren't welcome," Freeman told AFP.

The tourism industry is in search of more promotional funds and easier entry requirements for foreign visitors. ""The United States has to do what every other nation in the world does, and that is to promote itself to visitors," Freeman said."

That's what associations do, promote their industry. But, what is despicable is that this one does so by trashing, incorrectly, the United States, which it is supposed to promote!

The association's executive director Freeman was already debunked last year at the University of Southern California's Public Diplomacy blog.

Adam Clayton Powell III presented that:

In fact, quite the reverse is correct: the percentage of international travelers coming to the U.S. increased for the second straight year, exceeded only by France and Spain.

To which Freeman admitted:

It is true that the U.S. will welcome more visitors in 2006 than it did in 2005 or at any point since 9/11. In fact, the U.S. is expected in 2006 to return to its pre-9/11 total of approximately 50 million visitors. That's good news -- economically and diplomatically.

Freeman, however, said the mix had tilted toward Canadians and Mexicans. "Today's "increase" in travelers is driven almost entirely by Canadians and Mexicans."

Powell rebutted with real numbers:

BTW since this was posted, I have received feedback from State, reporting that, based on actual (legal) admissions to the US, the number of visitors has "unquestionably" surged since 9/11 - and not just Canada and Mexico. The increase from the UK, for example, is much larger than Mexico. Visitors from Japan alone surged by almost a million in the past three years - and in 2005 were almost as numerous as (legal) visitors from Mexico.

AFP says:

The Discover America Partnership was set up by US business leaders last year to try to redress the flagging image of the United States through a campaign of public diplomacy, waged equally by the government, business and public.

A trade association that can't and won't get its facts straight is disreputable. When it tries to lie to get funding by trashing its ultimate client, that's despicable, and stupid. "Discover America" is seriously off the reservation on its mission and needs to be hauled back immediately.

Another Link: Office of Travel & Tourism Industries to obtain real data.

MORE Zakaria nonsense:
Zakaria makes much of a declining share of international tourists visiting the US. In fact, as Forbes reports, most usual prior destination countries are losing international market share, to Asia.

At the Travel and Tourism Research Association Conference in Las Vegas this June, Helen Marano, Director of the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries and Alan Waddell, Chief Operating Officer of The Visit USA Association (U.K.), tried to dispel a myth that the U.S. stands alone in global market share loss. Four of the top five?-and 15 of the top 19?-international destinations have lost market share over the past 5 years, they said, predicting these destinations would lose more share over the next five years while Asian countries gained.

http://www.democracy-project.com/archives/003546.html