so now I want to talk about a new strategy for America, which is go back to Tourism roots

and the reason I have been thinking about this for the past few days is the sorry state of Tourism in India, where every few days we keep hearing about some woman tourist harassed, this was after the young girl Scarlett Keeting got killed in Goa.

And basically it is tough out there even when you know the city and I just wonder how people even come for work and mainly from America, it is Indian ex pats who can return home and then conduct business between the 2 countries and I would not recommend for either black or white Americans to go out and touch the world, since really a lot of places in the world are a pretty tough gig, even the places you think are OK, like Germany, can be a tough gig, let alone places in Asia and elsewhere.

But then Chidanand Rajghatta in the Times of India, has now changed his tune from being a Bush and Musharraf booster to just being a kinda sorta straight reporter for American news for India and for advice to Indians, gave some stats on India tourism and other countries.

And I think he wrote that our tourism here is about 5 million which is pathetic, compared to 80 million for France and in the 50s for America and China.

So those were quite an eye opener, but then I began to think that certainly India can do a lot better, but so can America.

Becoz the 50s are just small potatoes and people still want to visit, but maybe the tourist traps of New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas etc are all tuckered out.

There are still vast areas especially in the South and Mid west that do not get their share and it is a pity that roads like the 1 -49 north of Shreveport are taking so much time to get built and even down South there is such a complicated road system, except for short stretches.

And it occurred to me that America hasnt realized that a) the energy crises is not going away
b) there is no energy fix and c) other countries including India and China are busy corralling big blocks of energy resources in Africa and Russian Bloc or Central Asian countries.

So America has not made her resources and infrastructure fit the people who dont just wanna get in their car and drive to a vacation spot or take a plane to it, especially since many vacation spots like say the Louisiana plantations or in Georgia or Mississippi or Rio Doso in New Mexico are not exactly plane friendly.

Plus you need a car when you get there and plus even if planes go or to places like Bemidji in Minnesota, you have to wait hours for connections and then ride those dinky planes which scare the heck out of you.

So even for the domestic industry, lack of tour buses, trains and good main artery roads deter good tourist traffic to a lot of places which could use the industry.

With the sad fall of New Orleans, Louisiana is really feeling the pinch, but a lot of other places which are still functional just wont get the business, becoz first of all nobody even knows they are there and if they did, nobody for instance in New York wanna go down there to drive.

On top of which, the slightly paranoid culture is another deterrent, like in the 80s classic movie about a couple of New Jersey boys and the New Jersey lawyer who set them free and his sexy Brooklyn talking girlfriend. I know the movie, but right now all the names escape me. The weirdness of many places in the South and Mid west and especially the fear of weirdo law enforcement can be a real deterrent to tourist dollars getting there.

And America's economic crisis like its energy crunch is not gonna go away with a bunch of wishes.

And domestic tourism is just a little bit, but mainly it is re allocating money that is already in the country.

In the end, what they have to do is attract a lot more money and it has to be from Overseas and for that they have to stop thinking about Foreign people as potential immigrants and start thinking of Foreign people as customers.

Universities have already made the switch, but tourist destinations and deep in the heartland both in the South and Mid West have not grokked the reality that somehow they have to be user friendly for Foreign people, who may not just hire a car and drive around.

so that means setting up tours, roads, buses and trains and user friendly food stops and user friendly convenience stops and all of this at the same time as keeping America safe from people who have harmful intentions, just like we have to do in India, we have to keep India safe from nuts and terrorists and in the case of so called friendly nations, spies. smugglers and drug dealers as well.

So it is not going to get less complicated, but a lot has to be done that's all.

Bye bye