No moral person should be setting foot in the US |
For British tourists, the US has long been a favourite destination. Brits make up the largest number of overseas visitors to the country. The skyscrapers of New York to the parks of California – as well as the Fifa World Cup this summer – the USA has a lot to offer. Yet with increased debate over Donald Trump’s effect on the nation he leads and the world’s stability, questions have been raised about whether tourists should visit. Indeed, the US was the only major tourist destination to see a dip in visitor numbers last year. So should UK tourists boycott the US? Columnist Ian Birrell, War Correspondent Robert Fox and Travel Editor Sophie Lam offer their perspectives.
For British tourists, the US has long been a favourite destination. Brits make up the largest number of overseas visitors to the country.
The skyscrapers of New York to the parks of California – as well as the Fifa World Cup this summer – the USA has a lot to offer. Yet with increased debate over Donald Trump’s effect on the nation he leads and the world’s stability, questions have been raised about whether tourists should visit. Indeed, the US was the only major tourist destination to see a dip in visitor numbers last year.
So should UK tourists boycott the US? Columnist Ian Birrell, War Correspondent Robert Fox and Travel Editor Sophie Lam offer their perspectives.
The first time I went to the United States was four decades ago, as a student, to work at a summer camp for diabetic children in California’s stunning Sequoia National Park. Every night, the kids would sit around a campfire to sing songs that invariably ended with “This Land is Your Land”, Woody Guthrie’s lovely tribute to the majesty of America’s landscape.
And since then, I have visited this fabulous nation many times for both work and family holidays – from those redwood forests hailed by the great folk singer through to New York island and the Gulf Stream waters.
But like many more people around the planet, I would not go there on holiday now. Not when Donald Trump is running amok in the White House, attacking democracy both at home and abroad. And I would suggest no liberal-minded person should go and spend their dollars there if at all avoidable in order to show collective contempt for the country’s corrupt, destructive and hate-filled sociopath of a US President who despises Europe, loathes our values and loves our most despotic enemies.
This might seem petty and pointless: the US is a $30trn (£22trn) economic powerhouse, so your holiday spending will make minimal dent on its wealth. It might seem self-defeating, reducing vacation options. And it might seem hypocritical when Western tourists flock so happily to places run by ugly, repressive regimes such as China, Dubai, Egypt and Vietnam.
But we expect better from the land of the free that – for all its faults and occasional foolishness – once stood as a self-proclaimed beacon of democracy. Besides, how else can we signal that even the country’s close friends feel sickened by Trump, especially when our leaders prostrate themselves before this egotistical bully who demands simpering fealty from friends and foes alike?
Already, many foreign visitors are responding to his malevolent rule and migrant round-ups by altering holiday plans, and this “Trump slump” is being felt. Last year, the US was the only major nation to see a fall in international tourism, declining more than five per cent while everyone else enjoyed growth.
A dozen countries – including the UK, Ireland and Germany – have issued warnings over aggressive border controls and rampant gun crime. Now it is believed the White House’s latest hostile demand – to screen social media accounts and family histories of visitors – could cut tourism spending by another $15bn (£11bn), according to a recent World Travel & Tourism Council study.
This boycott will hurt decent people, regrettably, with another 157,000 tourism jobs thought to be placed in jeopardy as a result of this single Trump action – which is, of course, incredibly duplicitous from an administration that lectures Europe about free speech.
Yet the blame for every lost job in the holiday sector, for every tourism firm forced into closure, lies entirely with their own repulsive President who has crushed any admiration felt towards America and curdled the warmth felt towards his people with such rapidity.
Polling shows that even in many of the closest US allies, such as Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, attitudes have soured with substantial majorities now holding an unfavourable view of this country.
Besides, why would any Canadian want to visit the country whose maverick leader is challenging their independence? Why would any Dane want to spend time in a nation whose President is threatening to seize its territory, risking the future of the Nato security blanket that has kept peace on our continent for so long? Why would any European want to visit the land run by an avaricious man who is aiding the Kremlin on the bloodstained Ukrainian frontline of Russia’s war on democracy? And why would any African, Arab, Asian or Latin American person want to holiday in a place that has banned many of their fellow citizens and has a lethally armed force prowling the streets to grab suspected miscreants and migrants from abroad?
Scott Mills: My husband and I know we’d be great dads – here’s why we’re childfree
The ‘spinster’ housing crisis can no longer be ignored
Trump set out to humiliate Starmer – but instead handed him a lifeline
This woman tried to fix childbirth. Instead she accidentally tortured millions
Ultimately, why would anyone want to reward Trump’s twisted vision of America? This amoral chancer is devastating democracy at home and abroad while throwing around his nation’s economic, financial and military weight to achieve his egotistical ends, regardless of the devastating impact on other countries, let alone the conventional norms of diplomatic and international behaviour.
The great Woody Guthrie may have ended his most famous song with the line that “nobody living can ever make me turn back” – but he also sang other songs about Trump’s father’s racist housing policies, the dehumanising of migrants and defeating fascism, greed and hatred.
So if you want to play your small part in the fight to revive hope, restore decency and salvage democracy, avoid this land of golden valleys and sparkling sands for now.