Even if they would pay me $250, I wouldn’t want to go there.
The headline is misleading.
- It’s a refundable deposit
- It’s not for all travelers but only for those on non-immigrant visas. Most notably, does not apply for ESTA travelers
I don’t call it the ‘land of the fee and home of the easy payment plan’ for nothing.
😂😂😂 they ticket mastered tourism.
It just keeps getting dumber.
Boy am I looking forward to the World Cup next year. If things keep trending this way it will be one of the most enjoyable cluster fucks I’ll have ever witnessed.
Here’s a reminder that the Olympics was held in Nazi-controlled Berlin, and a team of 18 black athletes from the US thoroughly trounced Hitler’s “master race” talking points by sweeping the medals.
The black athletes then had to return to the US, where segregation was still the norm; many of them struggled to support themselves afterwards, because racism kept them from being hired into any decent jobs.
Anecdotally, they were treated better in Nazi Germany than 30’s America.
Really tells it all.
Anecdotally, they were treated better in Nazi Germany than 30’s America.
Because they were US citizens. While the US has some pretty… ugly history. If you think Nazi Germany would have treated a random black citizen better than what they got in the US you are absolutely delusional. The only reason they weren’t sent to camps with the Jews was because the population was deemed too insignificant to be worth the effort.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_black_people_in_Nazi_Germany
It’ll be held elsewhere probably.
It should be interesting to see the attendance numbers for similar events in the U.S. vs other North American countries
I have a feeling they are doing this for people applying for visa for the world cup next year. Last world cup, Qatar saw 3.4 million fan.
With this in place a d we assume third of that number attend the government is looking at maybe 250 million.
Which is paltry. Even if we get the same numbers, that’s only $850mil. That’s not even enough to fund the fucking cafeteria at the Pentagon.
What’s funny is that a lot of countries do something like this, but it’s always a far lower price that is insignificant compared to the total vacation cost.
$250 on the other hand is so high that it would impact your vacation budget, specially for the US as it’s selling point
ishas been that it’s cheap compared to EU or other developed countries.It’s refundable
US cheap? 10 bucks a beer cheap? I get five beers and five meals for that price in some areas of Europe.
A trip to Florida is so cheap for my Canadian standards.
I’m talking about flights, hotels and food compared to Western Europe.
I do understand Europe has cheap places and US has expensive ones, the above analysis is more about the past (from Canadian eyes) and not what US has turned into.
I’m sure this will do wonders for the already declining US tourism industry.
The “visa integrity fee” applies to all visitors who need nonimmigrant visas, which includes tourists, business travelers and international students.
The fee is paid when the visa is issued, according to the provision.
Every international business meeting and conference just cancelled. Visits to Disney World plummet.
Who needs visas: https://brilliantmaps.com/visa-free-usa/
It’s only to prevent poor people from South America, Africa, Eastern Europe/Asia. Europe/Japan/Australia is still free to go there.
Professor at a large Canadian university here- our visiting EFL study tours from Europe, Latin America, and East Asian countries have skyrocketed this year as MANY of our partner universities are cancelling (or placing on indefinite hiatus) their US programs.
Apparently it’s a big thing in South America to go to Disney World. Family of 4 just added $1k. It’ll make you think twice.
It’ll make you think twice.
So will the lottery of a lucky few people being sent to their new home in El Salvador.
So does that add up to 3 thinks, or multiply to 4 thinks?
That depends how many thinks it takes to get to the answer “it’s not worth going”. Some people will need a lot of thinks to get there.
When I flew back from Brazil last year to Orlando, almost the entire plane was families with kids, a lot of which were wearing Disney merch. I bet that flight will soon be much less full as $250 is currently almost R$1,400 per person. R$5,500 additional for a family of 4 is a LOT of money in Brazil.
So a good chunk of people that would be interested in the World Cup…. Yet another reason not to come for them. FIFA is practically going to have to give away tickets to get people to show up at this rate
Being in the US even if FIFA gave me a ticket I’d burn it instead of going.
But also includes China, one of our largest sources of tourism…
It’s not going to stop people from Europe etc., but a lot of people might reconsider their holiday plans if on top of everything they have to pay these steep fees.
Well well, my mortal enemy has reappeared. Jk, hope you have a great weekend.
$250 is a rounding error for most international business travelers. That’s the cost of one moderately nice business dinner for 3 people. Between airfare, hotels, and meals, that’s less than 10% of the cost of almost all international business trips, with the possible exception of some quick jump from Toronto to Detroit for a lunch meeting.
Same for a lot of international leisure travelers.
This is a filter to keep ‘the poors’ away
For 1 person you could, but send over a team and it just added up. You’d do it only if you really need to woo a customer, something that directly adds to the bottom line. If it’s for training or a casual meeting, why would you? I know the perception is companies have endless money but they really don’t and they pinch pennies plenty. Travel adds up.
I work for a company that has 6 figures of employees.
We travel to the USA regularly. This will immediately get flagged and bump the overall travel cost.
The percentage doesn’t change for a team vs individual. 3 people also need 3 plane tickets, 3 hotel rooms, etc.
The boss doesn’t care about the percentage, they care about the bill. The total amount.
I am one of the bosses. I’ve been around lots of businesses that do this kind of thing, including tiny startups.
I’m telling you for most businesses, if they’ve bothered to send someone on a business trip that costs $2500+ per person for an important reason, they aren’t going to cancel it over $250. That’s foolish.
I already said it’s not about 1 person, it’s about a team. I see you’re finally adding the caveats “for an important reason”, that’s what I’ve been saying all along. Now you just have to add the other things I’ve been saying: For training and random conferences, it adds up. It’s about the total cost. Etc. Ok I think this has reached its end point, ciao.
Yeah other than Europeans and Canadians but they don’t need a fee to discourage them as it is
How many countries are going to add reciprocal fees? I hope all of them 😕
Why would we? If someone wants to visit from the US and spend their money here instead of at home, I’ll let them.
Still won’t protect you from being whisked off the street, sent to an internment camp for months, then being deported to a 3rd country, and being banned from ever coming
vanback to the US.This fee is paying for that service.
The way things are going, US will enact an optional $1000 “anti-deportation” Visa fee for tourists that want added safeguards against kidnapping.
We already have “TSA Precheck” which is just a bribe to tell the authorities to not look so closely at your bags and shoes.
A van you say…what van?
Yeah, that’s gonna do wonders for tourism. Another 1000,- for a family of four.
For every traveler who does pay the $250 fee, this is enough to scare away a dozen more who would’ve spent hundreds or thousands. Good job!
See - everyone who’s new to the exciting play-by-play of a trump administration - this is how it goes. They do something like this - so boneheaded, so outrageous, so confoundingly incompetent you think, “That’s the stupidest thing there ever could be” and then tomorrow - NOPE! New stupidest thing!
We did this already. It was four years of fucking insane hell. Many, many people died.
We’re doing it again. I guess we’re the stupidest motherfuckers to ever be.
ha ha
There it is. No one is exempt from getting grifted by the orange felon.
