Tue 18 Dec 2007
The United States is the only major country in the world to which travel has declined during the midst of this most recent travel boom, Fareed Zakaria writes.
In a world of expedited travel, getting a visa to enter the United States has become a laborious process. It takes, on average, 69 days in Mumbai, 65 days in São Paolo and 44 days in Shanghai? simply to process a request. It’s no wonder that quick business trips to America are a thing of the past. Business travel to the United States declined by 10 percent between 2004 and 2005 (the most recent data available), while similar travel to Europe increased by 8 percent.
The resulting loss isn’t just cultural, it’s also economic. Since 9/11 the 17% drop in tourism has resulted $94 billion in lost tourism revenue, 200,000 lost jobs and $16 billion in lost tax revenue.
[photo by: ThaiKimberly]
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