

America is wooing foreign tourists for the first time - tokenadult
http://www.economist.com/node/21557782

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cstross
It would really help encourage tourism into the USA if the USA _didn't levy a
freaking tax on entering the USA to subsidize the ailing Florida tourism
industry_. (Source: <http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/us-tourism-
security.5tl/> ) Which is ailing because the process of entering the USA
today, if you're a foreigner (like me) is marginally less friendly than
entering the USSR in the mid-1980s.

(This is not a knock on the USA, it's a knock on the immigration/border
control process. Which sucks. Horribly.)

~~~
Variance
I just took a trip out of the US down to Brazil and back a few weeks ago, and
dear god, coming back into the country at the airport in Atlanta...

The tourists probably had about 20-30 minutes before getting out of the
terminal, which is bad enough, but the US citizens were in a Disney World-
esque line that was long enough that I missed a connecting flight scheduled an
hour and a half after we arrived from Brazil.

That was bad enough that I sure won't be flying out of the country for
anything less than at least a couple days worth of stuff. I feel bad for
anyone coming through who isn't a citizen or can't speak perfect English. The
immigration building had these massive screens overhead showing serene
farmland scenes and images from across the country, while two or three
thousand passengers are stuck in a line desperately waiting to get home or to
their hotels at 1 AM. It's all very dystopian.

~~~
rdl
Atlanta is a particularly bad airport for entering the US. I far prefer to do
SFO, IAD, JFK, etc. By far my favorite is SEA, although IAD on flights from
the middle east (where ~90% of the US Citizen passengers are government
employees or contractors) are treated exceptionally well.

MIA, ATL, BWI are the worst.

~~~
malandrew
Totally agree on ATL being the worst and will never again fly through that
city. They easily have the most unpleasant ICE employees I've ever dealt with.
I usually try to fly into SFO or SJC, but I've always been pretty happy with
DFW, which is a common port of entry for those coming from Brazil.

It'd be nice if someone put together a site in every language that rates ICE
at each port of entry so people can avoid the airports where ICE is most
unpleasant. At the end of the day, airports are businesses and if they see
revenue dropping because nobody wants to travel through them then there may be
some change.

~~~
rdl
SFO is also nice for domestic because the TSA screeners there are private
employees (Covenant Aviation Security, LLC). They're both more competent at
actually finding contraband, and in my experience, more polite, than USG TSA
employees. Obviously they're under a microscope as one of the few (only?)
privatized airports, but SF isn't exactly an easy recruiting market, either
(even for airport screener type jobs).

They also are one of the 4 airports Clear covers, so you can bypass the lines,
too. ($180/yr, but I got 3 free months through Regus BusinessWorld Gold (also
free, somehow, for being a clear member; I was able to get both starting from
having a free Clear membership from starwood before Clear shut down the first
time; trying to find a way to get Clear for free after 3mo.)

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cgs1019
So, tourism decreases as a consequence of our making it significantly harder
to enter and much less pleasant and welcoming once you do, and our solution is
a marketing campaign to convince people that's not really how it is. This
seems so fundamentally flawed I don't even know where to start.

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rocky1138
As a Canadian citizen, I am close enough to the United States already.

It's great that they want to share their landmarks, friendly people, and
history. The problem is the gatekeepers AKA the TSA and border police. A quick
google search on TSA will give you all the information you need to make an
educated choice on where not to spend your holidays.

Until this is fixed, I cannot see how the USA can beat places like Taiwan,
China, anywhere in Europe (except maybe Germany), Australia, or Iceland for
the image of "welcoming tourists." It's purely anecdotal as it's an opinion,
of course. Take it or leave it :)

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cletus
America is currently the center of the tech world. This is largely due to two
things:

1\. The internet is cheaper here than anywhere else in part because everyone
else pays to connect to the US; and

2\. The university endowment system combined with some of the greatest
research institutions on the planet created the tech VC system that fuelled
the growth of Silicon Valley.

Manufacturing has already left the US (and most of the developed world). While
the barriers are higher for skilled labour, it's not impossible. Many
countries have a sufficiently stable political system and sufficient
infrastructure to create tech businesses.

My point is that the US is outright _hostile_ to those seeking to enter the
United States, be they as tourists, residents or temporary workers, and to
those who choose to come here and put up with a level of invasiveness that
rivals third-world dictatorships and the old Iron Curtain countries.

Now some of the post-9/11 measures I don't have a problem with. I see no issue
with fingerprinting those entering the United States.

On the other hand, as a foreign worker I need to report every foreign bank
account I own (separately or jointly), have a financial interest in or
signatory authority over whether or not that money was ever earned in or
otherwise entered the United States. This includes retirement accounts. Or
does it? No one can really say because the rules aren't clear.

Failure to comply can result in civil penalties as high as 300% of the balance
of that account and criminal penalties including years in jail.

When it comes time to renew my visa I have to leave the country to do it.

Should I want to leave my job and start a business here I don't believe I have
any legal recourse to reside lawfully in the United States so I have to go
somewhere else.

I'm actually encouraged by stories like this one just because I'm optimistic
that the US is finally figuring out that it needs tourists. Maybe someday soon
it'll figure out it needs foreign workers and entrepreneurs too. Hopefully
before it's too late.

It saddens me actually because the fate of the US is the same as that of many
companies. Early-stage companies are innovators. Eventually they get so large
that they live in constant fear that their success will go away or something
will kill the golden goose. Instead of innovating they simply play a game of
defense and interference. This is Microsoft of today with its Windows/Office
cash cow.

The US was formed my immigrants coming to escape the rigid structure and
persecution of the Old World. In a mere century the US turned from an agrarian
backwater of 2 million (in 1800) to an industrial superpower of 50 million,
thanks largely to migrants. The US shut its doors at the outbreak of World War
One has been building increasingly larger walls ever since.

What disturbs me most is the presumption of (criminal) guilt that seems to
pervade state institutions, particularly when it applies to confusing,
complex, special-interest bought rules like the IRS code. In no other country
I've been have I felt _fear_ that I'd be locked up even when trying to do what
I believe is the right thing. This doesn't just apply to foreigners either.
The US seems just as hostile to its own citizens too.

EDIT: regarding Internet speed, so as to be clear there's a difference between
Internet end-user cost (consumers and businesses) and service provider cost.

End user cost is indeed expensive, which seems largely due to the regional
monopolies that exist in the US, meaning cable companies. That is however
irrelevant (for the purpose of my argument).

I'm interested in the cost of a Facebook, Google, Ebay or Amazon providing
their service in resource terms. Of course there's a latency component to this
as well (the US being disproportionately represented in customer terms) but
ultimately it has been cheaper and I believe that to still be the case,
especially if you get to the scale whereby peering is possible and viable.

~~~
taligent
1\. Wrong. Completely wrong. Internet is cheaper and much, much faster in many
other countries. And many of those countries are rolling out FTTH/FTTN as we
speak e.g. Australia.

2\. True but a bit irrelevant.

The reason the US is the capital of the tech world is 110% due to the success
of the VC industry. It is so flush with cash (from its previous successes)
that it can reinvest in whole rafts of companies to create tomorrow's
successes. It's very much self perpetuating.

~~~
detst
>> 2\. The university endowment system combined with some of the greatest
research institutions on the planet created the tech VC system that fuelled
the growth of Silicon Valley.

> 2\. True but a bit irrelevant.

> [...] US is the capital of the tech world is 110% due to the success of the
> VC industry.

Are you disagreeing just to disagree? How is the thing you're giving "110%" of
the credit irrelevant?

Access to money doesn't create success and without success that money would
just go somewhere else. You can't seriously give it "110%" of the credit
without looking at the reasons for the VC system and the underlying factors of
the success.

~~~
taligent
I meant the quality of the universities. It might have been important decades
ago but it isn't the reason Silicon Valley is the centre of IT today.

It's because of (a) money and (b) willingness of VCs to take chances and
invest in companies with 23 year old CEOs and vague business plans. That sort
of thing just doesn't happen anywhere else.

------
rsanchez1
For the first time? Have these people heard of Disney World and Universal
Studios?

~~~
NoPiece
Everyone's skeptic meter should be triggered at the line, "...launched
America’s first-ever campaign to attract visitors from overseas."

30 seconds on youtube and you'll find this UK targeted ad than was uploaded 4
years ago.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkcYTVfXn74>

I'm sure there have been hundreds of ad campaigns in hundreds of countries.

