Trump's America is great for holidays if you enjoy vigorous frisking by men in uniform
Guardian
"Trump's America is great for holidays – if you enjoy vigorous frisking by men in uniform"
—Arwa Mahdawi
Trump may be a global brand but he hasn’t been very good for the United States’ international image. Research suggests that his presidency has already hurt the country’s travel industry and made it a less desirable tourist destination. A study by Hopper, a flight-booking app, found there has been a 17% decrease in flight searches from international origins to the US since Trump became president. In the UK, Kayak reports a 58% decline in searches for flights to Tampa and Orlando. This “Trump slump” is not very surprising: his primary focus since taking office has been on kicking people out of the US and keeping them out. Walls, travel bans and extreme vetting don’t exactly send the message that the US is a warm and inviting country to foreigners, whether you’re on the banned list or not. (Unless you’re Russian, it seems; there has been an 88% increase in searches for flights to the US there.
The downturn in US tourism isn’t surprising but it is a little sad. The country may be undergoing some serious renovations, but it’s still a wonderful place for a holiday; particularly if you enjoy vigorous frisking by men in uniform. Even so, it’s always worth doing your homework before visiting a developing country and getting to know the local customs before you travel. So here are a few tips for those planning a trip to Trump’s America.
Learn how to balance a binary search tree
Harvard, Stanford, Yale, JFK’s Terminal 3 … some of the world’s most prestigious educational institutes are in the US. And, as some travellers are discovering, the country’s pedagogical passion is evident the moment you land on US soil. David Thornton, a (white) Australian software engineer, was given a computer science test when he landed in Newark in February. And Celestine Omin, a Nigerian software engineer, claimed that he was asked to balance a binary search tree by immigration officials at New York’s JFK airport. Yeah, I have no idea what that means but it’s nice to see border agents taking the Stem subjects seriously.
Delete dodgy photos from your phone
Let’s say, purely hypothetically, that your phone contains racy pictures of you and your partner balancing a binary search tree in the buff: you should probably delete these. Federal agents at the US border are given wide-ranging powers and can ask for your phone and social-media passwords. -snip-
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/28/trumps-america-holidays-tourism-down
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