This Country Needs to be Easier on Foreign Visitors

I’m not writing as an official or some sort of expert, but as a regular person giving a common sense view.  This is about foreigners who want to come for a short or long visit and then return home, not those who want to immigrate. 

This country has many things that people in other countries want to experience, such as our cities, national parks, national monuments, festivals, and other possible attractions.  Of course we want them to come so they will understand us better as a country and people and, important to the national and various local economies, spend money.  Yes, there is a huge amount of foreign tourists in this country enjoying many different aspects in many different ways, whether independently or with paid groups.  Some rent cars and travel however they like and go where they want to.  Others, with not quite as big a budget, come with groups and travel on buses with tour guides.  A few have friends here who host them and show them around.  It all helps bring in money and build bridges, but there is always room for improvements, we could be doing a lot better than we are right now.

Ever since the tragedy of 9/11 security has been much tighter in airports and other points of entry.  Often it’s too tight.  There are too many hoops the visitors have to jump through as they attempt to enter this country.  Many people are grilled quite hard and find the experience frightening and embarrassing.  Don’t get me wrong; we do need to protect ourselves and I would never advocate letting visitors just waltz on in with no checks, but the entry experience should be easy and a bit fun to get the tourists visits off to a good start. 

Another thing that can be improved on is help in the tourists’ own languages.  Yes many visitors speak fluent English but many don’t quite have it down that well.  Americans who speak other languages can easily find opportunities to use them.  That would attract a lot more foreign visitors just by itself. 

Along with that we all can try to be as friendly and polite as possible.  We need to toss off fears and be social; with each other as well as visitors but that’s another subject. 

We can also promote more of our country better than we are now.  A few small areas get the bulk of the visitors.  I know attempts are being made to promote more lesser known places but this needs to be intensified.  Those visitors really need to know how much there is to see and how much they’re missing by limiting their places to visit too much.

I could go on and on but I think I’ve touched on some of the more important ways we can make our country even more attractive to foreign tourists.  We need to ease off a bit on security, make sure the visitors have a good time, fork over lots of money and then go home with fun memories of their time here.