How Rude!

Another morning searching for images. This time I’m looking for advertising from the 1940’s and it’s been hard to find. It’s scattered all over the internet and I’m looking for one central location. There is a site for the history of advertising and it has a great collection, but most of the images are from the first part of the 20^th century or older.

While I was looking for those images, I ran across an article from the Economist, detailing the big drop in tourism to this country. The number of foreign visitors has dropped 17% since 2000. And last year, the number of visitors from western Europe dropped 3% despite the fact that it was a record year for world wide tourism.

According to the article, the travel industry blames ‘a tortuous visa process and a perception of poor treatment on entering the country.’ In a survey last year, America scored more than twice as badly as the next region (the Middle East) on traveler friendliness. Respondents to the survey said they feared immigration officials more than terrorists.

Wow! Who would have thought that people would rather go to the Middle East before visiting Yellowstone Park? But I do remember my visit to Montreal and the reception I had upon returning…the Mounties were polite and cheerful when entering their country; while I was given a rude greeting upon returning to the US. At the time, I assumed it was because I was returning through a New York state border crossing. (Don’t we all assume that New Yorkers are rude?) Apparently that’s wrong… American border officials are perceived to be rude at all of the crossings!