As interesting and diverse as Britain certainly is, I didn't know it attracts more than
three million American visitors every year, until I read
this. The facts would seem to fly in the face of claims made by some people on this board that Britain is boring, and the British are the most boring race on earth! Oh wait, the people saying that are the ones who have never been here.
I have to tell you that although I run into American visitors on an almost daily basis, none (or at least, very few) of the ones I have seen conform to the stereotype described in that article. They're usually recognisable by the clothes they wear, the sort of places they like to visit, and are generally courteous.
One particular gentleman was easily identifiable as an American when he came up to me and asked "Pardon me, sir, can you direct me to the River Thames?" - pronouncing "Thames" exactly as it is written!
;)
So I've been wondering what it is that attracts so many American visitors to this country. Clearly it's not the weather - LOL - and with the £ being quite strong against the $ (£1 = $1.77 when I checked today), it's not the low cost. Indeed, London is probably the most expensive city in the world, and with fuel costs escalating, airline flights are more costly than they were. But still they come... The popular destinations for American visitors seem to be London, Windsor, Stratford-on-Avon and Stonehenge - anything to do with history going back more than 230 years.
Do as many people from Britain visit America? According to
this, the number of people heading from here to Florida is down by 20%.
The drop-off has been blamed partly on time-consuming new US immigration procedures, and security checks that have led to people being asked to remove shoes and belts for inspection before boarding aircraft. Telegraph Travel has received many complaints from readers who claim that they have been treated harshly at US airports.
Indeed, Air New Zealand has introduced a new service from Auckland to London - a journey of some 11390 miles or 18331km - routing via Hong Kong instead of Los Angeles. And it's not hard to see why, given the new immigration procedures at LAX, as described on the
Air New Zealand website.
The entry formalities require every passenger aged 14 - 79 to have a photo taken by the US CBP officials, and will have their left and right index fingers fingerprinted (except for US and Canadian citizens)
Fingerprinting? WTF! Well, if these measures are known to thwart terrorist attacks, so be it. But it is regrettable that such measures are clearly damaging the US tourist industry. I don't know of Americans being fingerprinted when they come here.
