Are International tourists treated like terrorists in the United States?

[claassenam]

I stumbled upon this article on CNN today that shows fewer visitors are coming to the United States as of late. They are blaming harsher security tactics. Is this true? Non-Americans, do you feel that you are treated like terrorists when visiting the US? What has been your experience?

Here's the link:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/01/31...vel/index.html

And the first few paragraphs:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Travel industry leaders meeting in Washington Wednesday said they want the U.S. government to stop treating tourists like terrorists, and to take steps to reverse a steep decline in overseas travel to the United States that followed the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Overseas travel to the United States has plummeted 17 percent in the past five years, travel industry officials say. And while a recent surge in travelers from Mexico and Canada has helped the industry rebound, it masks a precipitous and painful drop in travel originating in other countries.

The U.S. share of international travel has dropped from 9 percent to 6 percent, the group says.

The travel industry blames the U.S. government for under-staffing border posts, which they say is contributing to widespread perceptions overseas that the United States is hostile to foreigners.

"International travelers will tell you that they find that they are treated like criminals, that they are barked at by U.S. officials," said Geoffrey Freeman of the Discover America Partnership. "They simply feel unwelcome and that is leading them to choose other countries."

[bdsouza]

I think it depends very much on the airport into which you arrive, and the level of "foreign traffic" that airport experiences. I used to live and work in the USA, based in Dallas, TX. I only ever had one 'unpleasant' experience in Dallas when my travel companion, who was behind me 'disappeared' as we went through immigration. After searching frantically for 40 minutes AFTER the luggage arrived, I was told that she had in fact been detained and when she finally emerged, she said that when they scanned her passport, they found that she travelled 3 times in the past year on the 11th of the month, and it 'looked suspicious'. My other bad experience was in Canada, where I was threatened with being sent back to the USA, and having my passport blacklisted.

I have found the most consistently unfriendly airports for arriving international travellers to be Miami and New York, but once or twice you do encounter nice people. The worst thing is the wait because everyone has to be individually photographed, finger-printed and questioned. This, coupled with comparatively expensive flight prices (it costs much less to travel US-Europe than the other way around)probably factor into someone's decision to go elsewhere - if, on the other hand you are travelling with your young Family to Florida, for example, you are less likely to encounter problems.
BDS

[Mountie]

When I went down to Jamaica, I was happy to spent the extra time going through the security screening before leaving the US and before leaving Jamaica. When I got back to the US I think the inspectors were really more concerned about ganga than anything. I would rather take a little extra time and allow the security people to look through all the luggage, including mine. To tell you the truth, if people don't wan to visit the US or any country because of extra security, then they can just find another place to go or stay home. Thank you.

[shark485]

Based solely on personal experiences of going through US customs in various airports; airport and security personnel take little pride in their jobs, and are poor ambassadors of the United States. When you go to most places in Asia, people in airports take pride in their job, are very professional, efficient, and even patriotic.

I am sure airport personnel are trained to do their job as they do, and I dont blame them. Their tough stance probably helps US citizens feel safer.

[Mountie]

Hey Shark485, you should see some of TSA people I bump into at airports---they look like the individuals that need to be checked a little closer than most of the passengers I travel with. Know what I mean? Thank you.

[jashermd]

Hello,

I think it's hard to generalise, though the fingerprinting thing in particular is off-putting for people concerned about the privacy of personal information. I normally fly into either New York or San Francisco and haven't found the US officials I've met to be notably less friendly than those in other countries I've visited.

I do get occasional questions about the large number of African stamps in my passport, but I just tell them that my main hobby is wildlife photography and I spend a lot of time on safari, which has been fine.

Cheers,
Julian