According to a piece entitled America’s war on tourists:
…overseas travel to the US has slumped 17 per cent since 2001, even as world travel to other countries reaches historic growth levels. The decline has cost US$94 billion… in visitor spending, US$16 billion in tax receipts, and some 194,000 American jobs.
…
Interestingly, the poll suggested US foreign policy was not “a significant factor” in global dissatisfaction with the US, but that US entry policies were.
The slump in tourism to the US comes in the middle of a worldwide boom in overseas travel. The USA is singled out by travellers because of the way they are treated:
Before September 11, US airport staff often seemed to err on the laid-back rather than on the vigilant side. Now some overzealous officials appear to regard all tourists as potential terrorists. Entering America can feel like running the gauntlet.
“We are citizens of a country regarded as one of the closest allies the US has,” frequent British visitor Ian Jeffrey told the Orlando Sentinel last November. “Yet on arrival we are treated like suspects in a criminal investigation and made to feel very unwelcome.”
Personally I think that the EC countries should duplicate the US policies exactly – fingerprints, retina scans, arbitrary visa delays, abusive officials – but only for US visitors. And they should put up posters around their airports explaining the reason for their actions, and suggesting that if US visitors don’t like it, they ought to call their congress-critters.
(Of course they won’t do this, because – unlike the US, apparently – they have no wish to cripple their tourist industry.)