Reply #67: Oh.. looky! Evidence!

[ozymandius]

Tourism rises globally, but not to U.S.

The world's long-haul international travelers have jumped by 35 million since 2000, yet America has been largely overlooked by those new travelers, despite favorable exchange rates resulting from a weak dollar and attractions like Disney World and the Grand Canyon. In fact, the annual number of foreign visitors to the US is about 2 million lower than in 2000, leading travel-industry experts to figure that from 2000 to 2007, the US economy took a hit of about $150 billion... Foreign visitors to Orlando, Fla., dropped by one-third from 2000 to 2006; by nearly 40 percent over the same period to Anaheim, Calif. (read Disneyland); and by 22 percent to Las Vegas, a frequent entry point for foreigners to the Southwest... in all 50 states, travel and tourism figure somewhere among the top four industries by economic impact.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0729/p01s04-ussc.html