Regarding Arnie Weissmann's recent column, "Why tourism may prosper as an orphan" [From the Window Seat, Oct. 8], I have been directly involved with inbound tourism since 1977, when I established AmericanTours International. The main drivers of inbound tourism -- excluding Mexico and Canada -- are the exchange rate with the U.S. dollar and the cost and availability of seats across the Atlantic and Pacific.
The U.S. differs from most other tourist destinations in the world, in part because our hotel industry primarily caters to business travelers and in part because there is an enormous domestic leisure market. Most Americans take their vacations in the U.S. That's not true of our competition, which also has the advantage of government support for airlines and wholesalers.
In my opinion, the Travel Promotion Act was a good idea, but it was poorly written, and the execution has been minimal.
With few exceptions, most of the jobs created by our industry in the U.S. are minimum wage jobs, and highly seasonal.
Michael Fitzpatrick, president
AmericanTours International
Los Angeles
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