As we approach the first 100 days of Trump presidency we see he has kept just 5.9% of his campaign promises, source.

Trump also issued a list of his planned deliverables in his first 100 days "Donald Trump’s Contract with the American Voter" , also only achieved a small percentage so far. Here is the list of his 100 day deliverables if you want to make the same evaluation!

Big 100 day failures are

• propose a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress
• a five-year ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service.
• a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.
• I will direct the Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator.
• cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs
• Middle Class Tax Relief and Simplification Act
• Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act

BBC1 now- the first 100 days- Trump.

Let's not exaggerate, US tourism is destined mainly to Americans themselves.

I know several people who vacation in the US regularly. One couple even has a motorhome there.

Fortunately they're pro Trump So I don't think they're going to be spending less time or money there over the next four or eight years.

Is it though? When I was a kid there none of our neighbours went on vacation anywhere. They stayed home and did repairs to the house, repainted it, etc. Might have changed a bit these days, but in middle America I still doubt they go away much. People living on the West and East coasts maybe, but not so much the rest of the country.

Wiki's answer to fake news/alternative facts.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39695767

The most widely travelled of my friends is from Tacoma, yet he's the only person in his immediate family who has a passport. When he lived in the UK, none of them visited him. My friends in Toledo have never been abroad but have family holidays within the US, and friends in Iowa have a holiday outside of the US once every 5yrs or so.

None of my family have passports either at the moment. My cousin did visit the UK once back in the 70s and her grandaughter was in Germany for a time as her husband was a pilot in the US Reserves so was stationed there iirc. Other than that, no one has ever had one. They don't go on vacation much either - they're all too poor.

It used to be that something like 20% of all US citizens had passports. That might have increased of late, but it is true that US citizens do pretty much travel within the US.

But the question is the extent to which foreign visitors make up tourism in the US, and I do think that while not the majority, the loss of foreign visitors, especially to some key locations, will be a significant loss. I just don't have data.

The key words here in my view are some key locations.

There are obviously some locations where foreign visitors make up a large part of the total. There are other locations where that is not the case.

The question is also, to what extent is the downturn just a blip on the radar that will reverse as soon as people find something new to be angry about, and to what extent is it sufficiently long term to have an effect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touris...s#21st_century

According to this data, 70m foreigners visit USA per year, more or less.

I don't know what the figure is in Europe.

In the UK we are in a special situation as our passports double as IDs. In most European countries, the two are separate and you can actually get qute far on an ID.

How far does a US ID get you? Can you go to Canada for example?

It used to be that you could travel to both Mexico and Canada with just a valid US driver's license. I traveled to Canada several times without a current US passport in the 1980's.

After 9/11 and the tightening up of requirements, passports are required for travel outside the US. So no, you should not be able to go to Canada without a passport. I don't know for sure, however.

An additional problem is that several US states don't have sufficient information on Driver's licenses to satisfy air travel requirements for identification - for domestic travel.

I believe that the 20% figure was accurate as of 2001. I'm sure it's increased since then, but I would be surprised if US passport holders were above 50%.

When I first started traveling to the Netherlands in the 1990's, I was impressed that almost everyone seemed to have a passport - my impression was that everyone was registered and used their passport as ID, but I might be fuzzy on that.

And of course, within the EU, you can get pretty far without a passport. It's just that for air travel you are often asked for a passport as ID - or an ID card, I suppose.

My OH, who is German, mostly travels with her ID within Europe.

In fact she didn't have a passport until she first visited the USA about 6 years ago. I think she had allowed her previous passport to expire some tim in the 1980s and never felt the need for one since. Most EU and neighbouring countries are quite happy allowing you in with an ID.

Entering the Uk was also possible on an ID.

She has taken to using her passport more recently though as this permits her to use the self-scanning machines at UK airports and save some time.

As for the US, I have a friend in Texas who has not only never been outside the US, he has never been outside Texas. Maybe he's a bit of a special case, but he's not your rural gun-toting bible-thumping redneck type. On the contrary, he's quite well informed and reasonably educated. He just never had the time or money to travel much.

Not even close. Only 36%.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articl...instead-1.html

Or maybe 46%.

http://www.theexpeditioner.com/2010/...-a-passport-2/

Can't seem to agree on that either.

The increase may partly be due to the fact that Americans now need a passport to be able to take some domestic flights whereas before a driver's licence would suffice.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...c-flights.html

Evidently, New York was one of the states affected by this which may partly explain why they're the only state in the graph in the second link that has 60+% of citizens holding passports. Only state that reaches that figure.

I did say I would be surprised if it was 50%, so i guess i was correct.

There are many people who have never been outside of Europe nor outside of their European home country, that is pretty normal. I know a lot of folks who have never left the US. It is not even question of being poor, either..people don't take that much time off work there. And, the US is amazing as per places to see, parks, nature, resorts...cities. Plus, families spread across the continent, if people have time off they usually fly to see their family for a reunion, weddings, Thanksgiving, Xmas...etc. I find Europeans antsier - travelling more, internationally, and making a less of a deal out if it, too.

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"L'homme ne peut pas remplacer son coeur avec sa tete, ni sa tete avec ses mains." J.H. Pestalozzi

“The only difference between a rut and a grave is a matter of depth.” S.P. Cadman

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." A. Einstein

One interpretation I guess... I'd say they have some fruity ideas about a national identity card, despite the fact that they are happy to apply for passports, social security numbers etc.... and hand over the same information to the government at the same time.

Of course the Irish have the same fruity ideas, but the present minister for foreign affairs has managed to conn them into having a 'passport card' - I guess to some he does look like a trusty old head master (but he is a lawyer)



It seems the key is to not call it a National Identity card and you'll be grand.

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"There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." - Nelson Mandela

The Labor government in Australia tried that some years ago... look how far the patriotically-named "Australia Card" got. Australia remains one of only a handful of countries that do not issue identity cards and have no basic requirement for their citizens to hold any form of identification. (In Australia there is also no requirement to register your place of residence.)

True that.

I have a lot of vacation time (for US standards) and yet, aside from business travels which are unavoidable, I have pretty much reduced my outside-USA travels to only two family visits per year. Italy (and maybe Germany) at Christmas, Brazil in the spring/summer. Because I miss my family, but also because I must. If my family was in the USA, not sure I would leave the country at all for personal travel, to be honest.

I have always been travel-curious, but in the last year or so I have had less and less desire to leave the USA at all. The country is yuuuuge and there are enough things to see, even in our backyard. Plus, if I must, I'd rather spend two hours on a plane and be done with it, rather than 20 hours.

I think I am turning into a grumpy old lady!