Question: How will all the mass shootings in the US affect tourism this summer?

[Thtwudbeme]

I love to drive out west and visit Arizona, NM...especially the Grand Canyon. But now? I don't know. I really don't.

Why would anyone from another country want to visit at this point? I can't really see Europeans thinking that the US is a safe place to travel.

Do we have international travel warnings on the US yet?

[bucolic_frolic]

1. The US dollar is very high which will increase the cost for foreigners to visit

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. As long as they don't plan on visiting schools the tourists

should be fine.

[Thtwudbeme]

3. Unless they go to a concert, restaurant or nightclub

or grocery store.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

16. Yeah.

Avoid those and they'll be fine.

Won't they?

[Novara]

4. or a hospital

[Thtwudbeme]

6. or driving down a highway watching the scenery.

My god, this country is fucked up.

I don't really care about tourism- but I AM wondering if red states are going to lose money this summer because of their fucking gun worship....and ultimately the US in general.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

17. Okay, avoid hospitals.

But still, they can go to a park or a restaurant or a museum or a funeral home or a fire house and be very safe, right?

[brooklynite]

5. None whatsoever

Last edited Thu Jun 2, 2022, 07:52 AM - Edit history (1)

Plenty of tourists in NYC, despite gun and non- gun incidents.

Consider this: How many towns, or places within town, have not had a shooting incidents? The odds are infinitesimally small.

[Thtwudbeme]

10. Fine- but how many people from other countries "know that?"

When I was younger- from 1986 til about 1997- I traveled alone many times. I backpacked through Mexico and Jamaica alone with very little money.

People thought I was crazy because those were "dangerous places." I didn't run into very many other single travelers, much less single women.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

18. When I was younger I was an airline employee and flew

lots of places by myself. That was 1969 to 1979, long before your travels. I never backpacked. It just wasn't my thing.

But even then, people would be amazed that I was willing to travel by myself. I likewise didn't run across very many other single travelers, much less single women, even though I was never far off the beaten path.

Now that I'm older, 73, I am very aware that I look my age, and even though my health and mobility are still excellent, I recognize that at this point in my life I could easily be a target. So I stay even more on the beaten path. That's me.

Oh, and during the decade of the 1970s, I worked at DCA, National Airport in Washington DC and lived in Alexandria, VA. I took the bus to and from home and work. Because there was no telling exactly when we'd finally be done with work, especially when the flights ran late, I was often taking a bus home well after midnight. Sometimes people asked me if that didn't concern me, that someone wouldn't target me. I'd laugh, and point out that I NEVER took the same bus two nights in a row, and so someone planning to lie in wait for me would quickly give up in despair and target someone else.

[Girard442]

7. Gee, I really want to travel to a place that looks to be on the brink of civil war.

[Thtwudbeme]

8. Seriously- that is what I have been thinking

Seriously- we are sitting here in NC- and I don't even want to drive across Texas to go see the gorgeous SW desert.

I am 58 years old and scared to drive across Texas.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

19. You can easily avoid Texas.

Or simply cross the Panhandle on I40 and not stop in that state at all.

I personally love a long driving trip. I live in Santa Fe, NM, have family and friends in northern SC. I would love to visit them, but for me it's more an issue of taking the time.

[brewens]

9. Maybe not as much as we think if many were already avoiding us because of the gun violence.

That last shooting doesn't change much, it's what goes on here.

[Groundhawg]

11. Literally zero.

As horrible as these events are, the likelyhood that we would even know someone from that city of school arent great.
Of course it would definatly affect a city that had one.

[raccoon]

12. Tell you one thing, if I lived in a country that had sane restrictions on guns,

No way in hell would I come to United States.

I’ve wondered that myself if it hurt tourism enough maybe that would make a difference. When it hurts people in the pocketbook, that gets their attention. but I don’t know if Tourism would be impacted enough.

[Thtwudbeme]

14. I am hoping it hits some of the red states hard

I know....all the little Mom and Pop places will suffer. I get it.

[Jirel]

13. None.

Why would this summer be different from any other? Those who travel, will travel. None will expect to be caught in a shooting.

[onenote]

20. +1

[kimbutgar]

15. If you are from a foreign country and think about visiting the US I'd suggest to visit only blue

States that don’t have open carry or restrictive gun laws. And who the hell would want to visit Texas and those other red gun crazy states?

[Diablo del sol]

21. I think there would have to be some impact

My daughter graduated from the Cal State system last year. One of her friends from Australia had to beg his mother to go to college in the US. Reason being, shootings. She took her last final under lockdown as campus police were going door to door due to a threat. Oldest daughter had a friend shot a month prior to graduating college. A few others injured. Hero was a kid armed with a back pack and chair who took out the shooter while his classmate bled out. The oldest daughter, over half of her group of about 15 kids experienced active shooters on campus during college.

To put it in perspective, two kids, one car accident with no injuries involved, two lockdowns, one friend murdered. This is WAY past fucked up.

[slightlv]

22. I don't plan on going anywhere on vacation.

Right now, we've had a death in the close family. He's been cremated, and his wish was for his ashes to be scattered in the ocean. Specifically, on the East Coast. My daughter (his wife) wants to do it in North Carolina, which she says was his preferred place. Since I already have enough titanium in my spine and hips to trip alarms when I walk INTO a store, I can't see flying on a plane ever again. That means either driving or taking the train. I was thinking of taking a train and doing a sleeper car for the two of us. Attempting to make a nice trip out of an obviously depressing, trying time. NC also happens to be where my Dad originally came from. I don't look forward to visiting deep red country; in fact, the thought actually terrifies me at this point. But I sure don't want her doing this trip by herself in her state of mind.

Damn the gun nuts. Why should we have to give up our freedom to be able to move without the fear of being gunned down where we are at any given moment? What happened to our freedom of movement? Of our freedom to be secure in our person? To be able to pursue life, liberty and happiness? When did we give that up to the altar of the great gun god? And how many sacrifices does this idol of theirs demand? Or, like Marduk of old, is it never satisfied? (sigh)

[meadowlander]

23. Mass shootings aren't a new phenomenon.

It's the health care system that's giving me pause about going back to the States at Christmas. Catching Covid on the flight feels inevitable and I absolutely do not want to end up stuck in hospital in the US on limited travellers' insurance that doesn't cover the actual costs and then maybe not be able to get back into New Zealand if the borders close from a new variant.

I've never meet a Kiwi who put off or cancelled travel plans to the US because of mass shootings even after discussing it with a number of people after Sandy Hook. The places targeted tend to not be tourist destinations (workplaces, schools, movie theatres) and it's not like other countries don't have risks (terrorist bombings in many countries, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, etc.)

[Rhiannon12866]

24. I live just south of a "tourist area," Lake George, New York

And the tourists are definitely here, I regularly see license plates from all over the country. And it's definitely starting, traffic was awful today.