Trump Slump Update

July 19, 2017 (my highlights in Red)


INTERNATIONAL VISITATION DECLINES BY 5% IN DECEMBER 2016

The U.S. Department of Commerce today announced that 6.0 million international visitors(1)(2) traveled to the United States in December 2016, down slightly (-294,733 visitors) from December 2015.

In December 2016 the top inbound markets continued to be Canada and Mexico. Non-resident visits from Canada grew 0.5 percent while visits from Mexico decreased 9.6 percent. The United Kingdom (-5.8%), Japan (-4.4%), and the People's Republic of China (excluding Hong Kong) (+13.9%) rounded out the top five. Only one of the top inbound overseas regional markets(3) - Asia - posted increases in non-resident visits in December 2016, with Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East, South America, Central America, Oceania, the Caribbean, and Africa all posting declines.

Source

U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration.

How do you like your Oysters?

RAW, RAW, RAW!

How is that for a cheer.  read about oyster restoration in Maryland here. And I will wait for an "r" month even though oyster farming permits consumption year round.

Brexit tourism

Educational tourism is nothing new, but consider joining this tour during the fall or next year to learn more about Brexit and this historic vote.  For more into, check out The New York Times Journeys.

RIP George Romero

A classic figure in horror media passed this past weekend.  George Romero, best known for the living dead series of films died in his home town Toronto.

I wrote about being a fright tourist when I visited the cemetery where the opening scenes were filmed back in 2010.  If you don't have this film in your video collection, you can watch it on archive.org.  Pretty tame by the standards today, you might even find it on the Disney channel, but back in the sixties it shocked the world.

My sympathy goes out to his family and friends.  I want to thank Mr. Romero for his creative writing, directing and producing in the horror genre.

Traveling to Caribbean this Hurricane Season?

Be sure to know the emergency shelters available to you when you visit the islands.  For example, if you plan a trip to the Turks and Caicos this season, see this news report for your shelters.  You can also get advice from Tripadvisor.Com.

Plan ahead by checking the National Hurricane Center.

Or better yet, make your travel plans at the last moment.

Another new island to visit

Earlier I suggested that we all visit the new island in North Carolina.  But what about a new island the size of Delaware!!!

As predicted in the Scientific American, and announced in the mainstream media like Time, this Delaware size iceberg is HUGE.  After all it is a trillion-ton iceberg!

TCI Crime Update

It has been several weeks since the American tourist was shot in Grace Bay, Providenciales, TCI.  According to one online TCI newspaper (the Turks and Caicos Sun).  There was a lot of misinformation distributed in the initial hours of the shooting. Yet a different view is expressed by the competing news paper, the Turks and Caicos Weekly News who argue that the Government is not doing enough to fight crime.

I am not going to argue one news paper's reporting against the other, but anyone in the States know news is presented differently when Fox or CNN reports on something.

Spiral Jetty

Read Heidi Julavits' piece titled "The Art at the End of the World" this weekend.  As typical when I learn about some new place, I check it out in Google Earth. This form of virtual tourism is always enhanced when I can "see" the landscape from above, and from the frequent ground images photographers offer for viewing.  There are also several 360 images that let you spin around and look at the land.

If you can't visit it in person at least check it out by searching "Spiral Jetty, Box Elder County, UT" in Google Earth.  Fascinating.