US facing image crisis, says major travel group
The US has a worldwide image crisis that needs to be fixed, says a major travel industry group.
“We need an umbrella campaign that promotes Americans, promotes American values and the vastness of what you can see here,” said Roger Dow, president of the Travel Industry Association.
His comments came after a published study by the Pew Research Center showed America’s popularity continues to plummet.
In the survey, just three countries expressed more favorable opinions about the US than they did last year. Those countries were Great Britain, Pakistan and China.
The war with Iraq is clearly a major cause for the decline.
But data shows that people who have visited the US have higher opinions than non-visitors.
Mr Dow noted that state efforts to attract overseas visitors almost always focus on local attractions rather than on the country as a whole.
“We could divert a little money and for a paltry sum get the world to say,”You know what, Americans are all right,’” he said.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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