<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by B747-437B:
Inbound tourism to the USA in 2002 was down 16.6% over 2000 numbers based on preliminary stats.
That same figure is almost 40% for tourists from countries whose citizens require advance visas.
Conversely, inbound tourism to both Russia and China INCREASED in 2002. Care to reassess your statements again?</font>
At the risk of giving you a benefit of the doubt and not calling you a moron, (hopefully FT won't punish me for this), I believe that US economy could withstand a little drop in tourism if it helps in the overall picture. Don't forget, some 'visitors' did not see our way of life the right way on that famous day in September, so if what this country has to do to stop this kind of terror involves checking every body that wants to come in, and as a consequence locks some real tourists out, so be it. I don't think Russia is there just yet, and ESPECIALLY when dealing with Americans. I just don't see too many of us overstaying our visits, and/or hijacking planes to destroy their cities. AGAIN, let me repeat myself, I'm only talking about American tourists going to Russia, not anybody else, and if you don't see the stupidity behind their visa requirements for Americans, than as they say....