bryant

Den Beste notes a $500 million drop in American tourism over in France. Meanwhile, the ITA Office of Travel and Tourism notes a 7.6% drop in visitors to the United States for Q1 2003. This follows a 8.3% drop last year.

Putting that into perspective, a little over 600,000 fewer people visited the US in the first quarter of 2003. If each of those people would have spent an arbitrary $1,000, which is probably low, then the US has lost over $600 million in one quarter. The article on France implies that their drop is $500 million total. Per capita, $500 million represents more for France than $600 million does for the US, of course.

The point being not that we’re suffering more, because right now we aren’t. The point is that economic ties go two ways.

Addendum: what the heck happened to my dollar signs?