World's Worst Country
Add me to the long list of those who think the U.S. is the most unfriendly country to visitors.
I already thought that the U.S. is the World’s Worst last year, and cancelled possible plans for visiting a conference there for that reason. And that was before they legalized indefinitely detaining and torturing everybody for no particular reason.
Now the “Discover America Partnership”, which is in the business of selling America to potential tourists, backed by Disney and InterContinental Hotels, has released results of a survey of 2011 travellers. The result is that travellers see the U.S. as the world’s worst country in terms of getting a visa and dealing with rude immigration officials.
As a consequence, the American share in world tourism has dropped from 7.4 percent in 2000 to 6 percent last year, costing more than 200.000 American jobs.
To solve that problem, the “Discover America Partnership” might want to consider buying some ads worldwide. I can see the general campaign theme already.
“Discover America. It really is worth all the hassle.”
While I am at it, let’s see if I can come up with a couple of nice slogans.
There is the classic slogan “I’d walk a mile…”, which would fit nicely with the campaign idea. Change it slightly to:
“I’d spend time in a pile to discover America”. Show some pictures of tourists detained for checking the wrong place in the immigration form, piled up in the nude.
Then there is “With a name like Smuckers, it has to be good”.
Adapt that idea to “With our border security, we have to be good to see 50 million people yearly discover America”. Show some pictures of immigration officers handcuffing and kicking some tourist with that line.
The Hampton Inn slogan “We love having you here” might also work nicely, if used with the appropriate picture of people detained and kept in “stress positions“, and a guard watching smiling for the camera.
Or, since slogans are supposed to use only few words: “Discover America. If you dare.”
Link found at Sullivan’s Daily Dish.