Loss of tourism costs USA $100B, 200K jobs, $16B in tax revenue
The 17 percent decline in US tourism since September 11th, 2001 has had a devastating effect on the economy, costing nearly $100 billion (200,000 jobs, 16 billion in tax revenue). Visitors to the US from around the world rank the border procedures as among the worst on earth.
"What affects travel and tourism affects our economy and our image around the world. Travel and tourism is the face of America, whether it's people coming here or Americans going elsewhere," he said.Link"It's the person coming from India to look at a company in America for parts, or a person from South America who can't get into the country for a conference because he can't get a visa," Dow said.
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Mission accomplished.
If anything, I think that these numbers are underestimates. Under normal circumstances, a drop in the dollar like we're seeing now would have US tourist sites crawling with Europeans. But many don't want to come, because of the hassle and the uncertainty.
We're also starting to lose talented international graduate students, who often can't get back into the country for months if they travel overseas to conferences or visit family.
I do not enjoy going through customs into America from Canada. I guess I fit some kind of profile as I am always targeted and searched -- thankfully not strip-searched (yet). Since the War on "Terror", I have been extremely reluctant to visit America due to its slow rise to fascism. I'd love to visit more often (Seattle, Oregon, San Fran -- all great cities -- I live on the west coast) but the "welcome" I get at the border crossing / airport customs is enough to keep me from visiting and spending my money there (even though my money's worth more!). The horror stories I've been hearing from people and reading about scares me silly.
Welcome to the War on Tourism.
I'm sure this was one of the factors in the Worldcon voting for 2009, especially since this year's was also outside the US. People who are unwilling to put up with US entry procedures will probably continue to vote for non-US bids where possible.
I never realized just how bad the typical US airport experience was until I traveled to New Zealand. The two experiences could not have been more unalike. In the US, everyone, from US-based airline employees to security, treated us as though we were an inconvenience to them. Air New Zealand and customs officials in NZ treated us as welcome guests--because my wife and I were wrangling two young children, one of the NZ customs officers even pushed our luggage cart down the security line for us!
If this is what citizens of other countries are accustomed to, no wonder they aren't coming to the US.
On a related note, I've heard from a couple of people here that 'you can't get out of the US.' Because of the backlog for US passports, there's this perception that people who want to leave the US can't. Specifically, I know two people who know Kiwis in the US who are married to US citizens who are trying to get back to NZ with their spouses but have been delayed by passport lines. To someone who has an incomplete knowledge of the situation, this must seem startlingly like tales of the old Soviet Union.
Despite the weak dollar, many of my European friends have stopped coming here (they used to come in the 90s almost every year). The horror stories they've heard about the way they are treated upon entering and then departing our country at our airports has deterred them. Thats a shame, especially since we can use as much of their euros as we can get.
#5 I had zero problems getting my passport. There was no line at the post office. The process took about 15 minutes including filling out my paperwork and waiting for the photo to develop. I had my passport within two months. This was about 4 months ago and I live in LA.
the hassle of being treated like a criminal for wanting to visit friends or landmarks in the states is enough for me to say fuck it completely.
i wish more border guards knew that we have actual cities up here too and we all aren't looking to live in the states or to blow it up or to bring our superior grass over the border with us.
too bad, great land, friendly folks.
Ah but isn't this all offset by our own citizens staying home and not traveling abroad? Partly because we're afraid every other country in the world is crawling with terrorists and partly because we can't afford it anymore on our walmart paychecks?
Wow ... it's hard to believe that you fell for this astroturf campaign put on by the American Tour Association, a Washington lobbying group which receives millions in taxpayer money seeking to boost profits for some of the world's largest travel companies.
The AFP article was placed by Discover America Partnership - the front website for the National Tour Association and Travel Industry Association.
Really ... you have to be careful when reprinting press releases from organizations that try to hide who they are really representing.
If you do about 2 minutes of research using Google, you can easily see that the "statistics" you site are undocumented agitprop propaganda put out by large corporate interests seeking more government handouts.
It's not just the border controls. It's the heavy handedness of your law enforcement officials whether it be tasering anybody who says boo or wondering if I would be allowed to take pictures in this location. It's the gun culture. It's the lack of social policy that makes the bad guys take the drugs and want to wield the guns.
I'm sure the appearance of these things are worse than the reality but I ask myself whether I want to bring my children into such an environment. Euro Disney for us again next year. Which is not without it's risks; we travel there on the Eurostar engineering marvel and Euro Disney itself being an icon of American culture located in a country with a high Arab immigrant population. I balance these risks with the two best weapons a civilian has against terrorism : vigilance (is that bag unattended?) and stoicism (if I do die then I will do so having eaten well and with a smile on my face).
#10: You'd be more convincing if you provided us with links to the "true" statistics.
Whether it's a corporate/media beat-up or not, I personally have had two opportunities to visit the States in the last five years and have made a decision not to. I am a middle-class, middle-aged white anglo saxon female with no criminal record, and the thought of entering the States makes me nervous enough not to. And it IS NOT because of suspected terrorists - it is because of the behaviour of untrained, frightened people on the borders who see terrorists under every bed. We have them here in Australia, and the thought of many many more of them makes me cold. My experience of the average citizen of the States is one of warmth and friendliness - but fear makes people crazy, and it makes others like me want to stay away from the crazy.
#7 - that would be because you live on the Left Coast and must therefore be an America Hater and therefore you get your passport quickly but with a special mark so they can keep you out.
:-)
(I hope)
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not really "afraid" to go through the immigration procedures at American ports of entry. I just find the whole thing obnoxious and bureaucratic and an afront to standards of human decency that are the norm in most other places in the world.
I also end up every time feeling angry that a whole country of people can seemingly be held in such fearful sway by a combination of government propaganda and media manuipulation. Who in their right mind thinks they'll have a happy holiday visiting a country in the grips of an extremely nasty collective psychosis?
I haven't been back to the States in 2.5 years~ there are various factors that prevent me from going to see my family and friends, but the major reason is that nearly every time I go through immigration I and/or my partner get hassled. Twice I got pulled into a back office and grilled, once had my passport confiscated because they thought it was fake (it wasn't), and was held and questioned about a book I had in my checked luggage ("Rebel Women in PreWar Japan").
My sister won't even fly within the States anymore after security pulled her and her three young children into a room and asked why there was gunpowder on her suitcase. She had no idea why and they let her go, but not before scaring her children into tears and warning her that she had been "red-tagged" and would be subject to "special treatment" at airport security from now on.
I got loads more stories worse than this from friends and colleagues (Americans and non-Americans alike).
Any wonder people don't want to travel to/in/through the US?
I used to visit the US frequently, until one occassion in 2004 when I realised I valued my dignity more than I wanted to enter their country. There's a lot more places on earth I'd rather be where you can enter the country without being treated like dirt by a sub-literate moron in a uniform.
I'm glad the country is being hit in the wallet, the only language the sociopaths in charge understand. Shame, of course - as everyone knows, most American people are friendly & generous folks.
Xenophobia is its own punishment.
The xenophobes will of course blame the problems on the foreigners: "They're deliberately not coming to the US in order to hurt our economy!" Vicious circle.
From where I'm sitting in San Francisco, you can hardly turn around without coming face to face with an international visitor. Same in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Miami and New York. Oh, and Chicago, Seattle, and Minneapolis, too.
Actually, I only have anectdotal data to offer for San Francisco and New York. The other cities I just pulled out of my butt to flesh out the paragraph -- much in the way the "news story" linked does the same for dramatic impact.
Cory, I think we get your opinion regarding the U.S. at this point. When you're reprinting something that's essentially a press release for the special interests quoted within, it makes you look a bit foolish and petty, and somewhat hasty. There's lots of credible news that can validate your viewpoint, perhaps a five-minute foray into Google News could help?
We used to travel to New York City every year for a long week end...
We used to have a really good time there... We've given up for the time being, it's just way too much hassle...
Last time we went, I really had this impression that we were at the mercy of the security staff, that if one didn't like our face or attitude, we could be in for so much trouble...
That's really put me off, which is a shame because I really love NYC and with the cheap dollar, the shopping would be insane...
The numbers not accurate? Possibly. It is a lobbying group after all. However, it does make a very good point. As an American ex-pat with a job that requires a bit of travel every now and then the one thing I dread is going through American custom. If it wasn't for the fact that my family's in the US or that our company's HQ'd in the US (and I do have to visit every now and then) I really don't think I'd be visiting.
Don't even get me started on American carriers.
Ultimately, stating that the USA's response to 9/11 has cost $100 billion to the US economy is dramatic industry bluster.
According to the actual U.S. Department of Commerce stats collected when visitors cross the border, tourism to the USA declined by 6% since 2000, not 17%. In fact, a quote in the AFP press release stating that tourism from the UK went from 4.8 million to 4.1 million is both inaccurate and misleading. Although visits from the UK declined, the number is smaller and is not representative of overall visitor rates from Western Europe (which is down @ 7%).
Here's the link to the stats from 2000-2006:
http://tinyurl.com/yvy5kb
By the way, I hate taking my shoes off when I travel but it could be a lot worse. I've traveled to a variety of countries where guests are greeted with Uzi toting paramilitary, attack dogs & more.
Larry
RideTHISbike.com
Hey, #22, I am afraid that you keep turning around data on its head few times. Once you do that, you then make even wilder conclusions, and the way you put it, is not even funny.
Just a few points:
1) The original snippet of information referring to 17% decline I think comes from older data, does not refer to year 2006 but I think 2005 or 2003. I think it came from a press release of Department of Commerce ( I think).
2) Nowhere in the article it is said that US response to 9/11 cost $100bn. It said that "decline in tourism ...". The US response to 9/11 was not mentioned.
3) Your link refers to arrivals , NOT TOURISM arrivals. So they should not be treated as tourism numbers and come to conclusion that OK, there were 51 mil visitors in 2000 and 51 mil visitors in 2006. However, even from the number of overseas arrivals,it is very obvious that US tourism industry is struggling to attract visitors from Europe and Asia. The most striking is that recovery in numbers of visitors since 2001 is based mainly on Mexico arrivals which went up three millions (almost 30%) since 2000. Are you really sure that these ones are all tourists waiting to spend their money in US? Or are you serious saying that all Canadian arrivals are again only tourists?
4) In the comparison with growth in tourism worldwide, US tourism gets hammered, it is simple as that. While tourism worldwide is growing rapidly (somewhere I read there was a 38% increase in the tourism worldwide during the same time), the US arrivals stayed stagnant or show rather anaemic growth. Again this is if you exclude millions of Mexico and Canadian tourists. In my opinion, lost turnover is higher than $100 bn, especially considering weakness in US dollar.
5)Note about UK visitors not being representable for visitors from Europe is rather puzzling. UK visitors represented almost 43% visitors from whole Europe and actually was third largest group behinf Canada and Mexico. From the link given in your post, the decline of arrivals from UK is about 13% while from the whole western Europe it is ... guess what .... about 13% too. Not representing?????
Overall I have to say that US entry points, airports, staff, security have a very bad reputations among travellers. And it is impossible to avoid being told or hear some unpleasant stories which certainly do not make you to want to visit US in the near future. I would say much worse than perception on quality of American cars few years back, and that says a lot.
I am still pretty fond of what the US potentially has to offer in sights and people, but this latest 'welcoming' policy change is the last straw:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/12/10/visitors.fingerprints/index.html
Ten fingerprints?! Christ...