wee: I think that number is for all money spent related to tourism. Burger joints in tourist traps ordering more buns and cups, hotels buying cleaning supplies, whatever. Not just dollars spent by people visiting.

Maybe. Could be dodgy math, too.

In the end- the only thing that truly matters is how much they spend out of pocket. The rest is like computing GDP numbers

Pfft. Everybody knows it's far more profitable to exploit resources than babysit a bunch of tourists...

These particular tourists seem like just the sort we should be encouraging to visit. Seems like a no-brainer.

I went to journalism school... they said there would be no math!

One dollar isn't just one dollar. If I send that dollar as a tourist that same dollar will become the wages of someone else will become the dollar that person spends in a grocery store and so on and so on. Money circulates and becomes more money. When people don't come here those dollars never enter the US economy for whatever economy those folks are coming from and become lost to us. This is why tourism is such a potent economic force - it effectively imports money. So yes - 2.4 million tourists can generate $509 billion dollars of commerce.

Still no cure for Farkers who can't do economics

From TFA: That money will come from a $10 fee paid by foreigners who do not pay for visas to enter the U.S.

if every foreigner that does not come to the US pays $10, we can balance the budget.

/fail for grammar
//I noticed, no one was willing to sign their name to the article

Mr. Coffee Nerves: $212,000 per person?

As part of a four-night Disney vacation that gets you the "Hyena Level" dining plan.

You owe me a new keyboard.

I wonder how big of a disparity there is between the average tourist expenses and someone like a Middle-Eastern oil sheik that comes to Vegas and blows a couple million on gambling and women. 212,000 per person sounds ludicrous if we assume that everyone is spending the same amount. But a few high rollers will start to even out the scales pretty quickly.

Maybe the journalist used to be a cop and $212,000 is the street value of a tourist.

the U.S. welcomed 2.4 million fewer overseas visitors last year than in 2000

The decline was over a nine year period

/still no cure for subbies who can't comprehend the article

Mr. Coffee Nerves: $212,000 per person?

As part of a four-night Disney vacation that gets you the "Hyena Level" dining plan.

/golfclap

Slick Johnson: the U.S. welcomed 2.4 million fewer overseas visitors last year than in 2000

The decline was over a nine year period

/still no cure for subbies who can't comprehend the article

It's a damned short article, but the word "decade" does feature prominently within it. Poor subby.

To be fair that's only like 12.50 in euros

Rev.K: urger: Still no cure for Farkers who can't do economics

I understand your concept, but that multiplier effect seems to still be awfully high.

No disagreement - the estimates for this sort of thing are more voodoo then actual science to be frank. The exact numbers are almost certainly off but I would expect it to be within +-25% of the actual amounts. That sounds like a large range - and it is - but like I said: Economics is part magic and part math. The trick is figuring out which is which. Most people upon encountering it just assume it is all bullshiat and say things like subby's headline without realizing that those numbers are well within the realm of possibility.

Sorry - this is a pet peeve of mine

urger: One dollar isn't just one dollar. If I send that dollar as a tourist that same dollar will become the wages of someone else will become the dollar that person spends in a grocery store and so on and so on. Money circulates and becomes more money. When people don't come here those dollars never enter the US economy for whatever economy those folks are coming from and become lost to us. This is why tourism is such a potent economic force - it effectively imports money. So yes - 2.4 million tourists can generate $509 billion dollars of commerce.

Still no cure for Farkers who can't do economics

Exactly. The article says it is $32 billion in direct spending which accounts to $13k per tourist. That 13k then goes to the community who spends it several times until the government eventually gets it all.

vernonFL: Why so many fewer tourists?

It couldn't be because of the tightened security and mindless xenophobia and jingoism of the last 8 years, could it?

Right here.

Obama can sign all the bills he wants promoting tourism, but until we make the TSA a little less asshole-ish, tourism is not going to rebound.

I wouldn't come here a lot either, what with all the, ah, "security features" lately.

Gilligann: Just read some of those comments. I wasn't aware that most Yahoo users were also Freepers.

Yeah.. since Yahoo started the comments section is has gotten pretty bad in there. Used to be I had to actually click on the politics tab to experience that level of stupid.

Lazy journalist is lazy.

The Act is in response to worrisome evidence that the U.S. is losing ground to other countries in the global travel market. The U.S. welcomed 2.4 million fewer overseas visitors in 2009 than in 2000, and the failure to simply keep pace with the growth in international long-haul travel since 2000 has cost the U.S. economy an estimated $509 billion in total spending and $32 billion in direct tax receipts, according to the U.S. Travel Association.

$509 billion over 10 years doesn't seem nearly out of whack.

It seems like it's jaberwocky, but it's more fundamental economics.

If the tourists spend $10k, that gets paid out to people who can then spend it other ways, which then gets used in yet more ways.

That's how $10k can turn into $100k of economic activity. The $200k+ figure does seem a little bogus.

The calculations are correct. They are just for tourists visiting the Cayman Islands, not the US.


/A Novel And Efficient Synthesis Of Cadaverine
//Amy Bishop has a copy. It went well.

The U.S. Travel Association is probably merely adding in all purchases made by their members using their income, all the further purchases made with the money by the next layer receiving it, and so on.

It's an old statistical trick used to exaggerate the importance of a particular business. I once saw an an "outdoor sports" writer value the Michigan deer hunting industry with adding several times the entire US auto industry's income to the state's economy.

Well maybe if Obama hadn't told everyone not to go to Vegas!

urger: One dollar isn't just one dollar. If I send that dollar as a tourist that same dollar will become the wages of someone else will become the dollar that person spends in a grocery store and so on and so on. Money circulates and becomes more money. When people don't come here those dollars never enter the US economy for whatever economy those folks are coming from and become lost to us. This is why tourism is such a potent economic force - it effectively imports money. So yes - 2.4 million tourists can generate $509 billion dollars of commerce.

Still no cure for Farkers who can't do economics

This. Tourist traps are just large ponzi schemes. Any decline in tourists has a rippling effect through the local economy.

wildcardjack: It seems like it's jaberwocky, but it's more fundamental economics.

If the tourists spend $10k, that gets paid out to people who can then spend it other ways, which then gets used in yet more ways.

That's how $10k can turn into $100k of economic activity. The $200k+ figure does seem a little bogus.

Add in property taxes collected by hotels that wouldn't need to be built, room taxes that are over 10% in some areas, the number of high rollers that spend 6 months staying in a $4000 / night hotel room ($720,000 right there), condo-hotels that allow people to buy what's essentially a time share in the US, etc.

There's a lot of hidden foreign investment in the US because of hotel industries. Sometimes these even involve making money from a foreign investor who reserves but never even uses the room.

There's some math problems, but when you add in all factors plus the highest of high rollers you can really blow the curve on things like this.

The numbers may be wrong, but your headline is also wrong.

"Fallacy of Averages. Imagine standing with one foot on a keg of ice and the other in a fire. Your average body temperature may be fine, but the extremes will kill you! The fallacy of averages is the fallacious results you may get when replacing data with their expected values."

I assume that's over the course of ten years. Still seems high, though.

That's a hell of a week in Vegas. A "why am I not dead"?!" kind of week.

ultraholland
Damn, I never knew the street value of tourists was so high.

These are high quality Cuban tourists, best on the market.

Gilligann: Just read some of those comments. I wasn't aware that most Yahoo users were also Freepers.

Came here to say this. I don't think I ever really read Yahoo comments before. Sort by highest rated and I think you can quickly find out where all the Ron Paul supporters are hanging out now.

Subby: Still no cure for journalists who can't do math

No cure for subbies who don't understand economics either ...

$509 billion:

ten years worth, 2.4 million people, factor of 4 multiplier effect = about $10,000 per tourist on average.


seems about right.