US Response To Massive Decline In Foreign Travelers: Keep Crazy Policies, But Set Up Ad Campaign
from the uh,-yeah dept
Sometimes it feels like the US government likes to take incompetence to new levels. It should come as little surprise that foreign tourism to the US is way down. Basically ever since the Patriot Act, visiting the US has become a huge pain for foreign tourists, and with our lovely new "we see you naked or we touch your private parts" strategy for airline passengers (thank you, TSA), it appears that things are getting even worse. So, if you're the US government, how do you respond? Do you start thinking about modifying such policies to make visiting the US less unwelcoming? Do you start thinking about more effective, but less insulting security procedures? Do you start looking at why those foreign tourists are staying away in droves? The answer appears to be no, no and no.Instead, you set up a "public/private partnership" to launch an expensive ad campaign and you fund part of it by charging those very tourists to enter the country.
Yes, the US government and the travel industry have teamed up to launch the new "Corporation for Travel Promotion," (CTP) which will seek to run a huge advertising campaign to foreigners, trying to convince them that once you get past the unfriendly gropers at our borders, the US really is quite nice. The US Travel Association, which is a part of this effort, does say that it would be a good idea to use the CTP to convince the government (which, um, we thought was a part of the CTP) to create a "more efficient and friendly entrance procedure," but notes that work will be "challenging." So, for now, it sounds like the main focus will be on advertising how cool the Golden Gate Bridge looks, if you can actually get into the country.
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Filed Under: advertising campaign, foreign travellers, tsa, us government, visas
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Ugh...
When I was in the Bay area, the Golden Gate Bridge was only significant because it got me out of San Fran and on my way to Napa Valley....
On topic, at what point does the cash starved government begin to worry about the lack of tourist dollars coming in? Do they possess the cognitive capacity to understand the correlation? Does anyone else remember that the Nazi hosted olympics prior to WWII resulted in applause around the world for how wonderful and happy Germany was at the time, if only it weren't for a few worrisome policies?
(Sorry for going Godwin in the first post....)
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I wonder if the people that decided that was a good idea have moved from the auto industry to the travel industry...
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Re:
Come visit north Korea.
We will house you, (jail)
feed you, (gruel)
give you spa treatment, (water board)
help you loose weight, (starve)
in the end you will leave a new man. (manchurian candidate)
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Re:
They don't grope you or force you through pornoscanners in North Korea.
They do inspect your digital camera and erase all the photos they don't like on your way out. How long till the TSA adopts that strategy?
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They do inspect your digital camera and erase all the photos they don't like on your way out. How long till the TSA adopts that strategy?"
They already have adopted the strategy of searching your electronics:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090927/2208126331.shtml
http://www.techdirt.com/ar ticles/20080917/1048522292.shtml
No worry about them deleting your pictures, they will gladly keep them:
http://politics.usnews.com/news/national/articles/2008/06/24/seizing-laptops-and-cameras-with out-cause.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10004646-38.html
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I'm sure I'm not the only one who is making decisions with their money, thes
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Our leaders are not crazy, they just "never let a good crisis go to waste."
I think South Park got it right, "the terrorists have invaded....our imagination."
People have been trained that everyone is equal, everyone gets a trophy for trying!
People have been trained that guns are bad and dangerous, so they do not own them and are afraid of those who do.
Then they start worrying about terrorists and what do do about them, they are certainly not equal cause they kill people!
What you end up with is a large group of pansy, participation trophy owning, afraid of guns, ignorant Americans running right into the arms of the tyrannical leaders promising to protect them.
These people are easy to spot, they are the ones on the news saying things like "If getting patted down keeps the terrorists off the plan I'm all for it!"
When the Orifice Bomber takes down a plane those same people will be saying "If bending over keeps terrorists off the plan, I'm all for it!"
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I'm sure I'm not the only one who is making decisions with their money, these are tax receipts not going to the depleted American coffers.
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Half full
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I'm an advertizing exec
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I'm curious . . .
Or are people just not going to the US at all?
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Re: I'm curious . . .
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Subject
In addition, they should also train every dog to insert their snouts in to said bodily orifices, and they should also be allowed to insert bomb "puffers" inside said body orifices as well. Every single passenger ranging from new borns all the way to the very old should be exposed to these new security measures because we know that everyone wants to blow up Americans.
OH, and make sure these searches are conducted by unskilled persons with criminal records.
I really think this will attract visitors to the US.
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I am certainly staying out
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TSA - Tourist's Suck Ass
So the more money we pour into TSA the more draconian their security gets. The worse security gets the less people want to travel. In a lot of ways this is the only real way TSA could ever protect us. Simpy slash the number of travelers down to 0 and then everyone is finally safe in the air.
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Has anyone actually done a study on this???
Terrorism is a lovely word being overused to erode citizen's rights, but has there actually been any measurable effect other than the US government's "It's working" rhetoric?
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Re: Has anyone actually done a study on this???
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Reasons
1. It has taken me almost 2 1/2 hours in Orlando to go from check-in to gate for a domestic flight.
2. LAX terminals suck. Nothing really there, no shopping, very little to eat other than junk food. To go to some airline lounges you have to pass through Security (not worth the hassle most of the time). Had an airline lounge that had a 3 drink max - not good for a 4 hour stopover.
3. US airlines treat there customers like s*^t. Pay for this, pay for that, sit with your knees up round your ears
.
4. TSA touching your junk - seriously, why would I go to the US to be humiliated. - I've read all the reports. It scares me.
5. Congress says that you can only be kept in an aircraft on the ground for three hours.... THREE HOURS.... I balk at 15 minutes. Three flaming hours...
6. Fear of losing my laptop entering the US.
7. Fear of ending up on the "no fly list" and not being able to get home.
You have so many sights to see... and yet I don't want to go through the hassle of getting there...
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get what you pay for
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Oh, I forgot, it's much cooler to be "pro-civil-liberties" than "pro-not-being-blown-up-on-a-plane".
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Is your last name Christmas?
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Re: Re: I deeply regret not knowing what I credited myself for!
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Oh, I forgot, it's much cooler to be "pro-civil-liberties" than "pro-not-being-blown-up-on-a-plane".
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I find it funny that you think Mike writes here in an effort to be cool. Most of his critics seem to argue that his opinions represent a minority.
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I haven't fly to US in over 6 years and there will be no convincing me to fly to US to visit until TSA is gone. I've thought about going to Las Vega for holiday a few times in the 6 years, but they are quickly crushed by the thought of TSA.
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It's been going downhill only since then from what I read. I have no doubts that the numbers of people entering the US goes down as everyone is regarded as potential criminal and on top of that - only because I'm from Europe - I even get discriminated against other foreigns entering the US by that fee. It's not a big fee but it's a matter of principle.
I rather move freely around Europe and Asia than going to the US. The next time I'll go to Canada I'll take a direct flight.
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I'll take my freedom any day over supposed 'government protection'.
Eventually, at the rate we are going, soon you'll need protection from the Government - who will do that?
Makes you wonder how this country got past 200+ years without government searching, groping, and tasering us all...
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As for increased travel to Mexico that someone mentioned, really? Mexico? Have a fantasy for kidnapping or something?
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I'll take my chance with Mexican drug cartels as they seem much more civilised than the US government.
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Last time I was in the U.S. was before 9/11.
I got fed up of the Walmart Greeters (U.S. Customs and Immigration) searching my car every time I crossed. And the general bad attitude of them.
The last time I went was when a friend from Hong Kong was visiting and we went to Seattle. After crossing the boarder he stated to me 'The boarder guards in Mainland China are friendlier,
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To post # 30
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Idiotic
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It could go like this:
"like porn? The USA loves porn, so much so that on entrance to our country, you get a free naked picture that can be handed out to all the TSA buddy's, see, your already a porn star. But wait, that's not enough you say? and we here at USA do agree, that's why, lucky random family's will get our deluxe deal, a free erotic pat down; even grandma can bring back that special feeling, so dont waste your time going to France, they only pretend to be erotic; we start the erotica as soon as you leave the airplane."
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I will not do so while the U.S remains as unwelcoming as it is. A decsion I made long before these obnoxious scanners and fondling began (I could avoid them by driving through border crossings I think).
It's the finger-printing, retina scanning that put me off. I've visited military juntas that are less obnoxious and prying of individual affairs.
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Holiday and Work
I am Italian, from the south, I have light dark skin and long beard (as any Italian geek, I respect traditions), I am a likely candidate (more often than not) for further screening at any airport after 9/11.
I am of the (maybe few, according to some comments above) lucky ones that can decide to get an holiday out of Europe.
I wrote 'maybe few' but all the people I know is having their holiday out of Europe, and we are just simple employees. Crisis does not enter into equation, I dare to say.
I am now sitting on a beach in Mexico, I am waiting for a flight to Cuba and during all my trip I felt myself welcome everywhere.
Conclusion: travelling for work in US, I have to; for holiday, I need to find a very good reason.
Multiply the same reasoning for all the Europeans/Asians/Australians/South-Americans having holidays "abroad" and you get your drop in tourism in U.S.
No campaign can help this.
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No more US travel for me
When sanity prevails again, I'll reconsider, but it appears to me the whole freaking country has gone collectively batshit crazy.
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Re: No more US travel for me
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Ah... Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Moves... TSA is funded how?
Keeps moving... You mean most people hate fondling by a stranger?
Stops moving... Refer to this post
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Holiday
MAYBE next year.
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Yeah not so much now.
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Tuorism way down
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The Airline / Turist business has a broken model
The airline business has a broken model where they let a fascist government take over part of their operations (security) now they will pay the consequences. Take our family as reference; we are not going to accept radiation and nude picture taking of our members nor sick PAD-DOWNS. The current procedures targets disable persons for sexual harassment my wife has a titanium hip. So the whole family is not flying any more. Members of the family are now buying motor homes, new cars, etc. We are re-adjusting our recreation activities. Even if they fix this mess in the future, the monies for flying are not there anymore the money went into buying new cars (we just bought new car yesterday cash) and motor homes.
If you own airline stock sell them as soon as you can, there is no future in a business like that.
The airlines knew that the TSA was going to implement those machines and start humiliating your customers and you did nothing about it. Where your lobbyists in Washington are, fire them all, you needed someone at the helm of the TSA that understands the airline business. But you accepted the current administration of the TSA and you are now going to suffer the consequences.
Read this, not only you are humiliating your customers you may be killing them:
Scientists with the University of California at San Francisco were so worried that they wrote a letter to the White House Office of Science and Technology in April, 2010 raising "a number of red flags" on the scanners' safety.
http://www.npr.org/assets/news/2010/05/17/concern.pdf
Full body scan machines = tumor-trons
And by the way: Bean me up Scotty �..there are no intelligent life forms in this planet.
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Missing The Point
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never again
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It's the TSA's fault
They violate the 1st Amendment by placing protesters in cages, banning books like �America Deceived II� and censoring the internet.
They violate the 2nd Amendment by confiscating guns.
They violate the 4th and 5th Amendment by molesting airline passengers.
They violate the entire Constitution by starting undeclared wars for foreign countries.
Impeach Obama and sweep out the Congress, except Ron Paul.
(Last link of Banned Book):
http://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000190526
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Canadian not spending money in USA any more.
I just flew between Canadian provinces last night, and got selected for the nudie scanner. I opted for pat down. I would describe it as an effective pat down, no groping. "Only in Canada you say? Pity."
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That's why ...
Traveling by plane these days is like being a criminal in airports. So much paranoia. I agree with security but not paranoid person rights invasion.
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The airlines
How many people in this thread have said they won't fly because of TSA? And how many other people won't fly in general? Yet the government *and the airlines* continue to ratchet up the "security" measures.
So, at what point does someone get wise to all of this and say TSA is the reason that airline revenues and tourism are down? Obviously it won't be the government, who's spending money on a new ad campaign, but when will the airlines learn? Or do they not care about security as long as they can ask for more bailout money?
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Get Groping American Perverts
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Flying
Many thanks!
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passengers flying
I have chosen not to fly for months, and hold off on any need to fly as long as I can until the courts address the lawsuits against the TSA.
I have little doubt that I might file a lawsuit if I need to fly a U.S. air carrier flight and I would rather avoid the hassle.
The terrorists may have lost the military part of the war, but who won the economic, and domestic part of the war? Seems like were still paying for what the enemy did nine years ago, and may be for a very long time. Feel away TSA.
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Wow, and I thought taking photos and fingerprints were bad!
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