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To: Wallace T.

"The U.S. State Department issued a record 7,300,667 passports in fiscal year 2003, which ended Sept. 30, including first-time passports and renewals. The record followed two years of declining passport numbers, according to the department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs. The previous record of 7,292,182 was set in 2000. The increase brings the total number of valid passports to an estimated 59 million or about 21 percent of Americans, the highest percentage ever. Surges in passport applications usually indicate increased overseas travel by Americans, especially to Europe, as they did in the years 1993 through 2000. While this was not the case in 2003—overseas travel has declined because of the Iraq war, the SARS outbreak in Asia and concerns over the economy—the passport figures may be a strong positive indicator for 2004."
http://www.travelagentcentral.com/travelagentcentral/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=75568
Most recent data indicates 21%. That is still pretty low for a developed country.


51 posted on 04/17/2006 2:06:21 PM PDT by ARealMothersSonForever (Political troglodyte with a partisan axe to grind)
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To: ARealMothersSonForever
At a fee of $97 per person 16 and over, and $82 under age 16, a family of four (assuming the kids are under 16) would spend $358 just to enter Canada, Mexico, etc. The added fee will kill a lot of casual tourism, especially for day trippers to Vancouver and Niagara Falls, or who use southern Ontario as a short cut from Michigan to New York. In my own case, there is little in either Canada or Mexico sufficiently appealing to make that expenditure worthwhile. I would as soon save the money and go to Glacier or Yellowstone National Parks rather than Banff in Canada. The same would probably hold true for Canadians, who can fly to Commonwealth countries like the Bahamas and Bermuda without a passport for the same balmy climate that Florida has.

I agree with the need to tighten border controls. However, there will be an economic cost to the tourism industry.

52 posted on 04/17/2006 2:44:06 PM PDT by Wallace T.
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