[ad_1]
What Uneaka Daniels experienced during her last few stays in the United States was enough to keep her away for a long time.
Born and raised in Bermuda, Daniels was in Atlanta in 2019 when she decided to get her hair done. On her way to her salon, she stopped a man to ask for directions. Suddenly, everyone ducked down. It was a drive-by.
“I was able to actually see the gun and see it fire,” she told USA TODAY. “People on the street were acting like nothing happened, and I’m here trying to crouch behind a tree. I say, ‘Guys, I’m not scared of this.’ He said, “That happens all the time.”
Her last visit to the United States was in 2023 for a medical procedure. While Ms. Daniels was recuperating, she went to the park across the street from her hotel to “sunbath,” but she felt uncomfortable when others saw her as being disrespectful or asking her for money. “It was too much,” she said.
Not everyone wants to come to America.Gun violence and safety concerns are keeping travelers away.
learn more: best travel insurance
TSA detections of firearms are on the rise.Here’s what we saw at one of the airports with the highest number of infections
For the past four years, she has avoided traveling to the United States. “I love the United States, I love going there. I love the people, I loved everything about it, but now I’m trying to move away,” she said. “I’m not saying I won’t come back.”
In addition to her own experiences, Daniels has been shunned by the United States for reasons such as the rise in mass shootings, especially because she is a school teacher, and the rise in homelessness. “She was scared to see that on the U.S. news,” she said. “Her friends said things had changed.”
Daniels is not alone in her hesitation.
More international travelers are opting out of trips to the U.S. The U.S. travel industry continues to struggle to recover from the pandemic, according to a recent study by the U.S. Travel Association and Euromonitor. Internationally, there will be 12 million fewer people than in 2019. The US ranked 17th out of the top 18 travel markets, just ahead of China, but one of the main factors was the security of visa deadlines and a strong US dollar.
From 2019 to 2021, the United States dropped four spots on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Safety and Security Index due to a lack of trust in police services and fear of gun violence.
“There’s no question that safety is a concern for all travelers,” U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Jeff Freeman told USA TODAY.
learn more:best travel insurance
Gun violence on the rise
Ivan Klari, a Croatian, loves to travel and has been to Southeast Asia and Ethiopia, but he has not yet visited the United States for several reasons. One is that gun laws are lax in certain areas of the country.
According to Euronews, the United States has more than three times as many guns per capita as Europe’s most powerful nation, Montenegro.
Clary said he hears how often firearms are seized at TSA security checkpoints, and that the problem is even more prevalent at U.S. airports. In 2023, the TSA seized a record number of 6,737 firearms, 93% of which were loaded.
Gun violence is a pressing problem in the United States, which ranks first in gun homicides among high-income countries with a population of 10 million or more, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The age-adjusted firearm homicide rate in the United States is 19 times that of France and 77 times that of Germany.
“This is the weird part of America to me, the open politics of gun ownership,” he told USA TODAY. “This shows a lack of trust in Americans in America. We’re not used to walking around with weapons, meeting someone and seeing them have a gun.”
Last year, the United States had the most mass shootings (defined as four or more people killed or injured, not including the shooter), the most mass shootings in 2006, according to USA TODAY/Northeastern University/Associated Newspapers. It was the highest number of mass shootings since tracking began. Click on “Mass Murder Database”.
Just six weeks into 2024, 44 mass shootingsAccording to the Gun Violence Archive on Tuesday, 75 people were killed and 140 were injured.
As stories of gun violence dominate the news, travelers like Clary and Daniels are in the spotlight.
“America is very televised as a society,” Clary said. “You see all these things, like when the police stop someone or they want to shoot someone and they shoot you. These things stick with you more. It shows clearly on your face.”
safety first
Christopher Ankersen, a clinical professor at New York University, said that while it’s hard to shake the feeling that the United States is safe for many international travelers, they are “very influenced” by what they see, especially in the news and on social media. “There is,” he said. World situation.
‘We must be extremely cautious’:Why safety is a top priority for many LGBTQ travelers
“If you were to fly to America as a family of four in New York City, it’s very unlikely that you’d be on the receiving end of that kind of violence, but what does that feel like, what’s the atmosphere like? Really? “Is there anything other than a risk-based probability?” he said. “People aren’t doing that math.”
Patricia Palacios, who was born in Spain and lives in Grenada, travels all over the United States, but she doesn’t return unless it’s for work or a layover to visit her in-laws in Ohio. She visited New York’s Times Square in 2021, but she felt “more anxious than Buenos Aires or Mexico City at night,” citing the “sketchy” environment.
Her anxiety about the United States began during a 2018 visit to San Francisco.
“You can’t just be careful by not going out at night. Even if you’re walking on the street during the day, something can happen,” she said. San Francisco is notorious for car break-ins, but city efforts are expected to cut that number in half by 2023. The number of robberies also increased by 14.5% in 2023 compared to 2022.
Palacios acknowledged that travelers to cities such as Buenos Aires, Barcelona and Paris also need to be wary of petty theft and fraud. She was almost robbed in broad daylight in St. Lucia, which left her “scared,” she said.
“Be smart,” Palacios said, adding that she always asks locals and Airbnb hosts about places to avoid. “Ask around and get a feel for the place.”
Daniels last traveled abroad in 2020 to the UK and Paris with her partner, but said she felt safe walking the streets alone during the day and with her partner at night. Ta. “It was a completely different feeling than being in America. I wasn’t afraid of guns or seeing people begging for money like I was in America.”
“I would like to return to the United States,” Daniels said. “I’ll be more careful from now on.”
Kathleen Wong is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Hawaii. Please contact kwong@usatoday.com..
[ad_2]
Source link
