Opinion: U.S. should be embracing foreign tourists
By Matthew Yglesias, Slate
For a depressed economy, exports function as a magic elixir. Demand—and with it jobs—appears from outside, generating new income that cycles through the economy. This is why President Obama, as part of his recovery strategy, has set a goal of doubling exports over five years.
Talk of exports normally conjures up images of factories and container ships, but many of America’s exports are services. The nation’s biggest service export is in some sense not an export at all—it’s travel and tourism, an industry begging for respect on National Travel and Tourism Week. I’m pleased to report that America’s international travel export sector is healthy, with nominal revenues reaching an all-time peak last year of $153 billion—about 1 percent of GDP. Still, despite recent successes, it’s not clear that American tourism has ever really recovered from the tough blow it took after 9/11, suggesting there’s plenty we could do to further boost the industry.
As far as the national balance sheet goes, tourism functions exactly like an export. Foreigners come here and spend money, leaving extra funds in American hands, with which we can purchase oil and Chinese toys. It’s an export realm in which the United States has very strong fundamentals.
It’s kinda funny how us Americans expect people to cater to us when we travel abroad by knowing how to speak our language, yet want to create laws that would require speaking, signage, and literature be in nothing other than English here in America.
Biggerpicture: Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t that ‘American Exceptionalism’ at its finest? We are the exception, despite logic, facts and common sense, out behavior does not need to change.~
/snark
Huh? Way to inject partisan bias into a non-partisan topic. What planet are you guys from anyway? Where in the definition of American Exceptionalism does it say that the entire world should speak English? Please educate yourselves on the subject so you can discuss it intelligently.
I spent a year in S. Korea, and completed 2 university classes to learn how to learn the language and characters of Hangul, plus pick up some of their history in the process. And I was only staying temporarily. I put in more effort to integrate myself into their culture in 12 months than many immigrants to the U.S. have for their entire stay here.
A personal example: I dated a beautiful girl from Guadalajara, Mex back in 2004. I speak Spanish, and we used that language as our basis of communication. During the year we were together, I tried to teach English to her, but she didn’t reciprocate the effort. Years later, she still doesn’t speak English. Disappointing.
Anyway, I don’t understand the point of this article. It quotes statistics citing that tourism is at an all-time high. Stop complaining for the sake of complaining.
Where in the article does it mention anything about language? I read the whole thing and it was about making it easier for people to get visas to visit here but for some reason people are commenting on language. Apparently I’m missing something.
Why come to our country…not to change the subject this very enlighting to read, but doing quite a bit business with their factories in the textile business, you do have a big leverage advantage to speak their tounge,the Mormons have done quite well in Salt Lake breaking these barriers.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/04/24/v-print/147345/how-to-live-easy-in-china-on-475.html
Interesting response group! Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue