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3 Jan, 2018

U.S. travel industry off to a most Unhappy New Year

The people of the United States will awaken this morning, the first day of work after wishing each other a Happy New Year, to news that will make them most unhappy.

Preliminary statistics published by the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) for July 2017 show visitor arrivals heading south big-time. While other countries are reporting significant increases in arrivals from India and China, arrivals from both countries respectively plunged 17% and 15% in July. In the same month, arrivals from the Middle East fell by a whopper 40%, from Latin America -17.7%, and Africa -32%.

Keep up the great work, Mr Trump. You promised the American people an America First policy. Looks like the rest of the world is putting America Last.

As for those erudite ladies and gentlemen who run the U.S. travel & tourism industry, please keep your head in the sand. For every tourist who shuns the U.S., another country elsewhere benefits. Thank you very much.

I daresay the full-year 2017 figures will be the worst ever, probably eclipsing 2001, the year of the 9-11 attacks.

This editor, a Muslim, is proud to have long warned the American travel & tourism industry that their country’s foreign policy will prove to be more important than their tourism policy, and that the Trump Administration’s downhill-racer policies will trigger a global backlash and the end of the American empire.

Read some of my superbly accurate journalism here:

Is Travel & Tourism Ready for the Return of The Ugly American?

The Shredding of Brand USA

“Brand America” Hit By U.S. Foreign Policy

If the U.S. travel & tourism industry wants some advice on how to fix this problem, I will be happy to dispense it FREE OF CHARGE!

The following figures speak for themselves. Note that arrivals data reported is preliminary and subject to revisions.

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