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Travel to US declines despite global tourism boom

by Catherine Bodry (RSS feed) on Dec 15th 2007 at 3:30PM

The US Commerce Department reports that the United States is the only major country in the world to which travel has declined, even though there's a global tourism boom happening. The numbers are depressing: Japanese visits declined from 5 million in 2000 to 3.6 million in 2006, for example. So what's the deal? With our crappy dollar, the US is becoming a bargain destination. So why aren't tourists flocking to our shores?

The answer, according to a November 26 Newsweek article titled "America the Unwelcoming," is, simply put, that it's a pain in travelers' rear ends just trying to get here. For example, it takes 69 days in Mumbai simply to process a visa request to the US (perhaps explaining a 10 percent decline in business travel to the US between 2004 and 2005 -- while similar travel to Europe increased by 8 percent). Then, bureaucrats are being extra careful about granting visas -- as the article stated, "No one wants to be the person who lets in the next terrorist." Thus, any irregularity is cause to "stop, question, arrest and deport."

Is it any wonder tourist numbers are declining?

Filed under: Arts and Culture, North America, United States

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Tri Dec 15th 2007 8:10PM

Not a suprise there. I thought a 7-day processing time for a visa by some countries are too much, but apparently the US beats them by far. Well, it won't certainly help by the fact that the fee will increase in January and non-citizen will be required to have all their 10 fingerprints.

Jacqueline Dec 15th 2007 10:49PM

"No one wants to be the person who lets in the next terrorist". Gee, fear-monger much?

Yes, terrorism is horrible and awful and everything, but I have to question the policy of trying to keep non-Americans out, or at the very least making it really difficult for them to visit. We might be protecting ourselves in the short term, but we are sacrificing a lot more in the long term.

AlfaMike Dec 16th 2007 2:04AM

I didn't know that all toursists had to have a visa just to come vacation for a few days or a week. Are you sure that's not just for longer periods of time?

I thought Europeans with EU passports for example could visit without a visa...

I think it's more likely that foreigners don't want to come here because all we have are shopping malls, deadlocked traffic and HD TV.

james Dec 17th 2007 7:34PM

Can the author reveal the source of the information? This document (pdf):

http://tinet.ita.doc.gov/outreachpages/download_data_table/Historical_arrivals_2000_2006.pdf

seems to indicate a slight increase in foreign visitors to the US for 2006.

Thanks,

james

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