It’s often an exaggeration to say that some metric has “fallen off a cliff”, but there’s truly no other way to describe international tourism to America. Even reliable sources of visitors like Canada are staying away in astonishing numbers.
■ Tourism is generally a fantastic industry to be in -- travelers tend to be wired to spend, they stimulate all kinds of service-sector employment, and their money (by definition) comes from the outside of a local economy. Relatively speaking, tourism-related economies are low-pollution (think tour buses rather than smokestacks), capital-light (beyond some basics like hotels and transportation infrastructure), and sustainable over the long term (who doesn’t have a favorite destination they like to revisit again and again?).
■ The things that can screw up a tourism economy tend to be macro-scale factors. Security, for instance: Haiti’s violence problem, for instance, has kneecapped its critical tourism industry. Likewise, fuel costs: Soaring fuel prices are making both highway and air travel much more expensive.
■ Unlike the people making decisions in other industries, tourism decisions rest very little on cold logic or rational evaluations of the numbers. They’re made by people who are swayed by impressions and feelings -- “vibes”, in the slang of our day. A country that undercuts itself with a needlessly hostile posture towards the rest of the world shouldn’t be surprised if it experiences blowback that takes a chunk out of a vital industry like tourism.
■ But once those consequences come home to roost, it’s time to hold people accountable. There’s no good reason to throw away a perfectly good long-term stream of income just because it makes a few ill-tempered people feel good to roll up the welcome mat. Tourism is overwhelmingly good, we should want more of it, and if we’re getting less of it because of bad attitudes, then we need to place the blame squarely where it belongs.