I am now a permanent resident of the United States and my family comes visit as often as possible. My parents are elder and don't have Internet access, making the ESTA process quite annoying. They are retired and do care about the money they spend. This fee is simply ridiculous. Plus, if they come visit me and my family: are they tourists?

In Spain, I worked as a tour guide, believe me when I say I am familiar with tourism regulations in Europe and many other countries. Never have I encountered as many difficulties as I have when travelling to the United States.

Since January 2009, many friends have given up their plans to come visit me because of the extra hassles. They have to struggle with ESTA, but this only gives them permission to board the plane, they still have to be fingerprinted at the port of entry and they might be denied entry to the country.

The fees for lugagge are excessive, also. They are willing to come to the USA and spend their money here, why do they have to be charged $10 extra each? I simply don't understand it.

I am also curious about the phrase that reads "promoting tourism should not cost the U.S. taxpayer". It's tourists who spend their money here, and believe me, when European tourists come to the USA they spend more than they do in many other countries.

I have never seen much promotion of the United States as a tourist destination back in Spain, although different regions from Spain and countries like Japan, Turkey, France, Norway, UK, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Australia and many others did advertise themselves. By the way, none of them charges an extra fee and they have a very successful tourism strategy.

I hope this nonsense will not go any further.

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