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NIMBYISM
June 27, 2007

You’ll have to read on if you want to find out what the word nimbyism means. Here’s a clue—it isn’t foreign!

However, this issue addressed in this tongue-in-cheek and exaggerated commentary is exactly about being foreign.

Have you ever wondered why, with the dollar so weak and the Euro and Pound so strong, we aren’t flooded with European tourists bragging to their friends about how cheap everything is in America?

Here’s a clue: Have you tried to get into the U.S, as a foreigner? Let alone gone through U.S. immigration at any of our airports as a foreigner?

A recent informal survey of European travel agents and selected tourists commented that the real experience and much publicized perceptions of inbound U.S. tourists is very negative toward the good old, and we believe friendly, U.S. of A.

It isn’t just current negative attitude toward our country (although that certainly appears to be the oft commented case, however I do believe that is a short-term issue and anti-Americanism is currently—and perhaps for the moment only—somewhat fashionable, particularly amongst some of the media and intellectuals in some of the capitals of our so called friends) that’s putting them off, it starts for so very many with the indignity of trying to get a visa. Long lines at the consular section of our embassies, questionnaires, form filling, background checks, finger prints and whatever else we require in order to secure our country from terrorists, assorted felons, drug smugglers and dealers, villains, miscreants, illegal immigrants and the generally unwanted, unpalatable and unacceptable are just part of the survival test that our visitors have to endure.

For those that have visas or come from countries where no long line up for visas are needed, it’s that first experience as the weary traveler steps off that long intercontinental flight, eyes gritty and ready to experience the friendliness of our vast country.

Their very first contact on our American soil is the fabled immigration line.

The all too often long line to get to see an officer is one thing—okay everyone has to line up sometime, and for those that have stood in the morning lines to get through immigration at Heathrow or Narita they will no doubt empathize—it’s what happens next that hurts us and makes us the butt of jokes in the press and angry Internet complaints.

Yes, you’ve got it! It’s your oh so very friendly and welcoming immigration officer: Suspicious, disbelieving, sometime surly and many times so very abrupt. Off putting? According to the popular belief: Yes!

Here is an oft described, perhaps apocryphal, scene: Our tired tourist finally gets in front of the immigration officer, eye contact avoided, passport handed over with filled in forms. Our visitor waits, nervously knowing the presumption of guilt is already in play. “Where did you come from? How long are you staying? Show me a return ticket.” These questions snapped in rapid fire as the offending passport is swiped through the machine. Still no eye contact. Heart beating, our wannabe visitor waits, unspent Euros and Pounds waiting their own chance to shine.

Woe betides a blank screen then a frustrated grunt as the interrogator types in the passports details. Then a variety of things could happen, a strange hieroglyphic on the customs form, a single word “Print” as a finger points to the finger print identifier. Perhaps another word “Camera” comes out of the mouth of the officer as the strange Cyclops is bent toward you, recording your image for posterity.

Mouth dry, the tourist waits. At last a stamp stays poised above the open passport. Will it ever descend? The blank passport page virtually quivers in nervous anticipation. Yes! The passport slapped on the counter’s laminate surface, our customs officials eyes look toward the yellow line, eying up the next suspect in the long and daunting line of visitors waiting, often impatiently, for the magic stamp.

Abruptly dismissed with the single barked word “Next!” the tourist scurries away to await the next test with the hollow feeling that the perhaps dyspeptic immigration officer somehow believes he or she is in the United States to commit some heinous crime.
Luggage in hand, and often having survived the supercilious sniffs of a customs dog, our perspiring tourist waits in the line for the final examination—the handing over off the form with the immigration officer’s scrawl.

No eye contact, again, despite the suspicious up and down look of the form taker. Mouth again dry—Is this it? Paranoia rules. Was it all just a ruse to lull the traveler into doing something to give away his secrets? Is this the time when the immigration officer’s cruel sport comes into play, and our brave traveler gets hauled off into a side room for interrogation?

With a final glance at the offending luggage, the custom officer places the form on a pile and looks at the next traveler knowing that a drug smuggler or terrorist is about to try to pass. Finally it dawns on the victim, sorry, tourist, freedom beckons! In fear of a change of mind, our visitor scurries for the exit knowing that the sibilant hiss of the opaque sliding glass doors means the U.S.A. awaits.

This is the friendly first impression that our visitors get. No wonder they tell their friends not to bother.

A cynic might ask where do they go instead, if not here? Here’s something to ponder on, they go East, to such sophisticated and civilized paces as Bulgaria, Rumania, Lithuania, Croatia. Maybe they go South to Africa, maybe further a field to Asia. Dubai has built an incredible national tourist mousetrap. Can it be they are catching the mice that are rightfully ours? Can it be true? Can they be more welcomed there than in our fine United States? Can the sights and sounds of our country with all of its majestic and wonderful tourist venues be less desirable than the hot spots of the Baltic states?

The answer seems obvious by the results.

Be sure you understand, as I said at the outset, this is a tongue-in-cheek note to make a point. This hyperbolic exaggeration is not a knock on our overworked and harassed consular staffs and customs and immigration teams (you should know that on any given day approximately 27,500 people are held in various forms of detention awaiting word on whether they will be deported or not.) They have a truly difficult and important job to do, and I will never belittle the critical nature of their role.

However, the situation does happen from time to time I am sure. That’s one thing in itself, but it’s the perception abroad that it happens all too frequently (in whole or in part) that concerns me and prompted me to write this fictional tale of woe.

Far from it criticizing our fine public servants who do an incredible and tough job, often with little psychic reward, it’s the overall national attitude toward bringing international tourists to our shores that lets us down. It’s inbred and comes from generations of national leadership ignoring the critically important role that tourism, international visitors, play in our nation’s economy. The attitude must come from somewhere, and it is hard to believe it doesn’t come from the top.

Let’s face it, we should be ashamed of how little we spend as a country on tourism promotion. We should be ashamed of not recognizing the vast invisible earnings tourism brings. We should be ashamed of allowing the tourist industry to be ignored in the corridors of Beltway Washington and the millions of people employed in its service not being recognized as critical to our nation’s welfare. We should be ashamed of leaving the effort to the few activists and groups such as Travel Business Roundtable. We should be ashamed of not greeting our tourists with a smile as big as our national heart. We should be ashamed of not training our customs and immigration people to do their job of protecting us, but doing it with a smile and a kind word. Yes, we should be ashamed of not using the word “welcome” and meaning it.

We need to have the right attitude to encourage tourism of all kinds. We need an unambiguous cultural shift that starts with the very top of our government and quickly permeates to one and all.

We need to welcome our visitors with beckoning arms and a warm, smile as they service our visitors and tourists and make them feel they are wanted and important to us. For they are.

We need to have a culture that encourages all in the public and private worlds to find ways of bringing in more people and encouraging them to spend their foreign currencies inside our shores.

Simply stated, we need more tourists.

Our own Lady Liberty welcomed generations of immigrants and visitors to our great shores. Where is she now? Perhaps she is holding a visa application form in one hand and a biometric passport scanning device in the other?

Forgive the hyperbole I am using to make a point, but like you, I deeply care about our country, our economy and our industry. I know that more tourists are better for all.

It seems to me that we Americans are increasingly rightly or wrongly being accused of Nimbyism by much desired tourists with their long stays and needed Pounds and Euros.

Oh, I forgot! You want to know what Nimby means, don’t you? The answer is simple:
Not In My Back Yard!

Posted by Laurence Geller on June 27, 2007 | Comments (0)