The travel and tourism industry plays a significant role in the economy of many nations and also often shapes the perception of a specific destination.  Often there are direct or indirect consequences between economic and reputational factors For example, Yahoo Finance citing Goldman Sachs notes that the company is “sound the alarm “… on an overlooked but mounting economic threat: the collapse of inbound foreign tourism. According to the latest data, international arrivals by air fell nearly 10% in March versus last year. Behind the drop? A cocktail of aggressive US tariffs, rising geopolitical tensions, and an increasingly hostile border experience. Goldman estimates the pullback in travel and foreign consumer boycotts could carve out as much as $90 billion around 0.3% of US GDP in 2025. That would mark one of the steepest hits from travel sentiment since the pandemic rebound.”[1]

This article focuses on the importance of interpersonal relationships and a lack of caring can harm a location’s reputation and economy. Tourism is a composite industry, so it is not easy to estimate tourism’s total economic impact or reputational impact.  In addition, since different economists use multiple variables, there is no standard measure of the industry’s overall economic impact.  On a worldwide basis, the World Travel and Tourism Council projects that in 2024 tourism accounted for directly or indirectly US$10.9 trillion, a number that represents about 10% of the global economy. Tourism employment generated some 357 million jobs, approximately 10% of the world’s jobs.  In regard to the United States, the World Travel and Tourism Council estimates that foreign visitors to the United States added some US$ 1.9 trillion to the nation’s economy.[2]  

Tourism is a unique industry in that it exports intangible experiences and services.  Its economic success is dependent on others coming to the tourism industry’s location, rather than the industry going to its clients. Furthermore, the industry sells experiences and services which together constitute the selling of memories-in-the-making.

The Exportation of Memory

Travel and tourism are about the creation of memories. For many people, travel offers some of our best memories, especially when shared with our loved ones.” [3] Travel memories have three stages. The first we might call the pre-memory.  Pre-memory is the location’s reputation combined with our personal expectations.

The second stage of memory is the collection of memory data. That is our experience at the locale. Our second stage tourism memories begin when we first start our travel, and then when we arrive at an airport, seaport, bus station, or train terminal. This memory collection continues during our stay at the destination and includes everything from our interactions with people, culture, attractions, and activities to the climate and weather. This second stage of memory ends after we have left the country and have returned home.  

The third stage of memory occurs in the post-trip phase. It is at this time that we seek to share experiences and add (or detract) from a location’s reputation as a tourist destination. Travel professionals have long understood this principle, and for this reason, work diligently to create positive first and last impressions for their clientele. 

As noted above, a great deal of the tourism experience refers to the creation and selling of memories, and especially in an industry that markets a non-essential product such as tourism, these travel memories tend to be long-lasting. In addition to tourism professionals creating travel memories, government officials are also part of the traveler’s experience; how these officials treat a visitor not only helps to determine that traveler’s memory but also the locale’s often long-lasting reputation.

Reputation

When dealing with expendable incomes and perishable products such as tourism, a nation’s good reputation is essential. If people fear coming to a destination, they will not come, and the impact – long-term economic consequences — will be felt especially by the SME (small and medium enterprises) in the locale if the traveler has a fear of false arrest, crime, war, or illness there. In all cases, there is a direct link between the nation’s reputation and the success of its tourism industry.

Because visitors do not have to go to any specific locale, once a destination’s reputation is harmed, recovery is not only a slow but also an expensive process. We only have to look at Aruba’s Natalee Holloway[4] crisis to realize the impact of a damaged reputation on a nation’s economy.

The British newspaper, the Daily Mail, quoting the guide who aided the Holloway family and speaking about the level of Aruban tourism stated: ‘it’s not like before’ – claiming its association with the infamous cold case has caused clubs to shutter and cruise lines to remove Aruba from their itinerary. The resulting drop in tourism, (Alberto) Groeneveldt said, has left the island’s economy in shambles – days after it was announced that the killer thought to be responsible for Natalee’s vanishing would be extradited to the US.”[5]

With this insight into the importance of memory and reputation in tourism, we can understand that often the way a nation treats its visitors as they enter a country colors the visitors’ entire travel experience and perception.

The professional journal Travel Outlook stressed the importance of tourism first impressions when it wrote:

“We’ve all heard the expression that “you never get a second chance to make a first impression”.  Recent Studies[6] support this, but more importantly, the studies indicate that it’s very hard to change a poor first impression to a more positive one later. As a hotel, your entire image depends on the ability to offer great customer service right from the initial contact with your guest. It’s critical that your guests feel instantly welcome the second they contact your hotel. According to McKinsey research on customer experience, 70% of buying experiences are based on how a customer feels they are being treated.”

Although a positive first impression is important in all forms of tourism, it may be even more critical in the realm of international travel which – even without complications -is not easy.  It often involves needing to be at an airport two or three hours early, potentially long lines during check-in, security, and immigration. In addition, the traveler often must endure a long voyage during which s/he might cross several time zones.

If the traveler’s flight is at night, he/she might not have slept, and even in premier seating, have limited personal space. There are numerous other problems associated with travel including the possibility of flight delays and/or cancelations, lack of personnel, and irregular eating hours.

Unfortunately, these problems do not end when the airplane lands. Upon the passenger’s arrival, travelers are often exhausted and anomic, or hungry and desirous of merely using restroom facilities. These universal challenges are not necessarily the problem of any particular country, but rather are challenges that every tourism-oriented nation must face. Travel writer Shelly (no last name given), writing in Wanderlust Bound, also adds to the list of travel challenges lost luggage issues, theft of possessions, and illness while abroad. [7]

Anyone who has traveled abroad knows that immigration lines after a long trip can become a nightmare and often feel more like an obstacle courses than a border crossing.  As  Michele Debczak writes: “The most painful part of traveling often starts when you arrive at the airport. If you are traveling internationally, the experience is even more of a hassle. Every second spent standing in line for customs and immigration is time you’re not spending getting over your jet lag in bed.”[8]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of these problems were less apparent because far fewer people traveled. Since the end of the pandemic and the resumption of mass travel, there has been greater competition for international visitation and an increased number of both business and leisure travelers, further exacerbating the situation.

The Importance of the First Impression — a Warm Initial Welcome

From a tourism business perspective, how we greet and welcome passengers as they deplane and pass-through immigration and customs is an exercise in national security but also sets the stage for using tourism as an economic development tool.

The manner in which the foreign guest is treated – or mistreated — goes back to ancient Europe. Curiously, for example, we note that there is a close linguistic association between the Latin word hospes (guest) from which we derive the term hospitality, and hostis (enemy) from which we derive words such as hostile.

In too many cases, and often without apparent logic or a lack of training, nations treat their hospes (guests) as if s/he were their hostis (enemy). Due to personnel who are not always tourism-oriented, travelers are greeted not with a smile, but rather with long and exhausting lines even before they are able to speak with an immigration officer. By the time the visitor has his/her first contact with a human being, the immigration officer, the visitor is tired, perhaps angry, frustrated and often wanting nothing more than a clean restroom.

The problem of airplane deplaning and passenger exhaustion is not new. For example, as far back as 2015 the United States understood the importance of the negative first impressions caused by long waits at immigration and customs. The Miami Herald reported, “With an eye on bringing 100 million international visitors a year — and billions of their dollars — to the United States by 2021, the White House announced several measures to make arriving at the country’s airports a better experience.”[9]

The effort made sense as negative or hostile welcomes have long afterlives, and the negative fallout can have a significant impact on a locale’s economy and reputation. For example, Peter Tarlow, one of this article’s co-authors, has written “events that are deliberate acts usually last for a greater amount of time in the public’s memory.”[10]  Thus, in multiple nations around the world, the tourism industry has had a too often false hope, that people working in immigration and customs understand that there are two aspects to their jobs: (1) protection of the nation’s borders and (2) being the face of the nation and as such creating a welcoming environment.  No matter where one might be in the world, the visitor experience starts at the point of entry. Therefore, it is essential that while doing their jobs, border inspectors remember that:

• How a visitor is treated at immigration and customs sets the tone for the entire visitor experience;

• The first impression of a locale sets the tone for the visitor experience;

• Tourism is a major industry and foreign visitors are an important “export” item;

• Tourism is a perishable product and the competition between nations is fierce;

• Negative events and mistakes have international repercussions in the media and long afterlives.

It is essential to emphasize once again that tourism, especially leisure tourism, is a perishable product.  For example, in the case of air travel, once an airplane leaves for its destination, the airplane’s empty seats become lost revenue. The same is true for hotels and restaurants. All three of these industries deal with perishability, and once the date of use of the product has passed, there is no way to recoup the loss.  This reality is one of the reasons why first impressions and reputation are so important in tourism marketing and in receiving repeat customers.

Border patrol/Customs Officials specifically, must be aware that they are not only in the safety/security business, but they are in fact, in the tourism business as well. Law enforcement and security employees often become jaded over time, having to deal with criminals who wish to break the law. Criminals are sociologically different from tourists. Most tourists, but not all, are willing to obey the law although at times they might be ignorant of specific parts of it. Thus, customs and security must learn to identify tourists the hospes (guests) and treat them with kindness and patience, while maintaining an eye for the hostis (enemy) who might be disguised as a tourist. The challenge is to have an eye for the criminal but without allowing the tourist the immigration or customs officer’s gaze.

Due to the political climate in various nations, destinations around the world currently are suffering, especially the SME (small and medium enterprises) at those destinations, due to visitors’ fear of false arrest, fear of crime or war, or fear of illness. In all cases, there is a direct link between the success of a tourism industry and its nation’s reputation. 

Because visitors do not have to go to any specific locale, once a nation’s reputation is harmed, recovery is not only a slow but also an expensive process.  As mentioned previously, the infamous Natalee Holloway case in Aruba demonstrates that it takes only one well-publicized incident to ruin a locale’s reputation and have a negative impact on its tourism industry. 

International travel is not easy.

As noted before, international travel often involves long and tiring voyages and the crossing of multiple time zones. International travelers are often exhausted and disoriented, hungry and desirous of merely using restroom facilities.  Instead, now too often they are greeted by uncaring or even rude personnel. To make things more difficult, numerous reports from around the world indicate that immigration officers are often inconsistent, sporadic or random in the way that they treat guests, and at times see visitors, not as guests who come to spend money and therefore help a nation’s balance of payment, but rather as potential criminals who should be treated at best with disdain.  In too many cases visitors are detained and/or even denied entry.

It should be emphasized that in an age of human trafficking and international drug smuggling, immigration officers perform an important and essential task. When they commit an error, however, their mistake can be not only costly but can result a great amount of negative publicity. What this means is that immigration officers must act as both welcoming hosts and at the same time careful inspectors. They are both the first person that a visitor meets, and at the same time, with rampant illegal immigration, smuggling, and human trafficking, an essential part of law enforcement. 

This balance is not easy to maintain, and in early 2025, foreign visitors complained about overzealous border security.  If we focus on the United States as an example of poor reception given by immigration officers we can begin to understand the extent of the problem.

For example, in a National Public Radio (NPR) interview conducted by Ayesha Rascoe with Michelle Hackman of the Wall Street Journal regarding people having trouble entering the United States we read:

RASCOE: So, in your latest article, you mentioned border officials are using aggressive questioning tactics with visa holders and tourists. What are you seeing?

HACKMAN: Yeah. So, we’re seeing a lot of cases, and it’s tough, Ayesha, because the government, in many cases, is unwilling or unable to give us all the facts in the case, but we’re seeing people with relatively minor visa issues.

So, let’s say they’re on a tourist visa and house-sitting for someone. Another example: someone who is the fiancé of a U.S. citizen coming in on a tourist visa and border officials saying, “Wait a second, that’s illegal.”

You should be on a fiancé visa. In the past, border officials would say, OK, there’s a problem with your visa. You need to fix it and come back to us. Now, people are being sent to detention centers. They’re being deported over these really minor violations, and it’s scary for people.[11]

Other sources have confirmed the information expressed in the Hackman interview. These accusations must be of concern to the U.S. travel industry. International tourism arrivals are poised to suffer by scaring potential money-spending visitors away, due to stricter enforcement of U.S. immigration policies. Paul Hudson, the head of Flyers Rights, said that some within the U.S. Border and Customs may be sabotaging Trump immigration policies by punishing foreign visitors, or even killing foreign tourism to the U.S.

Rachel Change, writing in the international travel and tourism journal Condé Nest, noted this problem when she wrote: “The recent uptick in travel warnings could have a significant impact on US tourism, according to Yu, as several of the advisories were issued by countries that are top drivers of inbound travel to the US, including Canada, the UK, and Germany.

“The image the US has always projected is that we’re welcoming and diverse,” Larry Yu  from The George Washington University’s School of Business has noted. “This (poor reception by immigration officers) will make people think about how they see the US.  I hope it won’t erode their confidence in traveling to the US, but it may affect certain demographics.””[12]

In defense of government employees working both as immigration and customs officers, their job is not an easy one.  In a situation where honesty is often lacking, these officers can easily become cynical or jaded, and soon see visitors not as individuals but as the “enemy.”  Passenger entry lines are often long, and the officers’ work can be tedious, and many are overworked. 

Despite the job’s difficulty, these officers’ work challenges have nothing to do with any particular visitor and the incoming visitor has every right to expect pleasant and courteous treatment. 

Because the immigration and customs officer’s work is so important, when they commit an error or deny entry to a legitimate visitor the political and promotional harm can not only hurt the innocent victim and the local community, but it can destroy the reputation of an entire nation as a destination for leisure tourism.

Unfortunately, mistakes happen all too often.  Some of these mistakes have however become chronic. For example, as far back as the 1990s, the US border and customs were accused of singling out black women, primarily upon their return to the United States from Jamaica.[13] 

In May 2000, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against US Customs on behalf of Yvette Bradley. “According to the ACLU lawsuit, Bradley was led to a room at the airport and instructed to place her hands on the wall while an officer ran her hands and fingers over every area of her body, including her breasts and the inner and outer labia of her vagina. The search did not reveal any drugs or contraband. Bradley said she decided to proceed with the lawsuit after U.S. Customs officials categorically denied that her search was anything more than a routine “patdown (sic).”[14]

In the early part of this century, the problem was addressed by training at all major American airports. Unfortunately, the training was held only one time at each airport and over the course of the last quarter century, there have been numerous personnel changes. Once again, there are numerous reports of legitimate travelers to the United States being wrongly detained for bureaucratic or capricious reasons.  

For example, in 2025, we have the case of a German visitor who was in the United States on a valid tourist visa. While visiting San Diego, California, she decided to cross the border and visit Tijuana.  Upon her return, even though she had an airplane ticket for her return flight to Germany, she was falsely accused of planning to immigrate to the United States illegally, and according to an eyewitness, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) held her in detention for 16 days. The incident was widely covered in the German media and resulted in negative fallout from a major tourism source nation. Besides Germany, other tourism nations issued warnings about travel to the U.S.  It also received coverage in the United States. For example, NBC News in San Diego noted that: “A German tattoo artist who tried to enter the United States from Mexico through the San Diego border has been in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention for over a month, according to a friend who witnessed her being detained.”[15]

Unfortunately, the above incident was not an isolated case. In March of 2025, according to the Associated Press, “U.S. border agents handcuffed Tyler, a U.S. citizen, and chained her to a bench, while her fiancé, Lucas Sielaff, was accused of violating the rules of his 90-day U.S. tourist permit, the couple said. Authorities later handcuffed and shackled Sielaff and sent him to a crowded U.S. immigration detention center. He spent 16 days locked up before being allowed to fly home to Germany.”[16] 

Although we only know one side of the story, and these mistakes are not new, the focus of the international media not only on the mistaken detentions but on the conditions into which legitimate tourists have been placed has caused and international uproar and is destructive to the U.S. tourism industry at a time when the U.S. is rightfully trying to rebalance its import and export industries. For example, a recent article in USA Today writes that:

“A British backpacker. A Harvard researcher. A Canadian actress. An Australian mixed martial arts coach. Dozens of international college students…..And those uncommon detainees are bringing new attention to the often-harsh U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention system, where people can be held without charge indefinitely, sometimes in shocking conditions, or abruptly removed from the country. This type of treatment has long been the case in ICE detention, but the people held by the government often didn’t have the resources ‒ the access, language or middle-class expectations ‒ to denounce the conditions.”[17]

The thin divide between law enforcement and tourism security

In this time of realignment, we must provide those in immigration and customs the tools and training to assure that visitors who come to the United States, or any country, have the experience of  a lifetime and not a nightmare.

The Need for Training

At the end of the 20^th century and the first years of the 21^st century, US Customs officials received harsh criticism for overzealous and often unnecessary personal searches and detentions.

The solution then was to face the problem head-on and create training and open discussions with Customs officers. The results were not only that Customs agents better protected the nation’s borders, but also changed the public’s perception.  A quarter century has now passed and nations around the world have developed new techniques and technologies to allow the free flow of visitors and goods. Many of the problems noted in this article could have been avoided with advanced technologies, and better training. In this time of realignment, we must provide those in immigration and customs the tools and training to assure that visitors come to the United States, spend money, and once they return home tell their friends and neighbors that the United States is truly a land of freedom and a lifetime experience based on the words of the pledge of allegiance, with liberty and justice for all.

[1] Nguyen, KP, Yahoo Finance, “Foreign Tourists Are Boycotting the U.S.–And It’s Bleeding $90 Billion from the Economy,” April 15, 2025, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/foreign-tourists-boycotting-u-bleeding-144716200.html?guccounter=1, <accessed April 28, 2025>

[2] World Travel & Tourism Council, https://wttc.org/research/economic-impact, <accessed April 23, 2025>

[3] Sessions, M, “On the importance of making happy Travel Memories” January 29, 2023 https://www.everettpotter.com/2023/01/on-the-importance-of-making-happy-travel-memories/ <accessed April 23, 2025>

[4] The Natalee Holloway case refers to an 18-year-old American girl who disappeared on a school trip to Aruba in 2005. Her disappearance  (and subsequent death) became a cause célèbre in the United States and resulted a major decline in Aruban tourism.

[5] Hammer, A, The Daily Mall, May 14, 2023, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12082371/Guide-helped-Holloway-family-search-Natalee-says-Arubas-economy-reeling.html, <accessed April 25, 2025>

[6] Travel Outlook, “Making The Most Of A First Impression” https://traveloutlook.com/first-impressions/ <accessed April 23, 2025>

[7] Wanderlust Bound, “4 Reasons  International Travel is the Worst”, https://wanderlustbound.com/4-reasons-international-travel-is-the-worst/ <accessed April 25, 2025>

[8] Debczak, M, MENTAL FLOSS “How to Avoid Long Customs and Immigration Lines on Your Next Trip, March 12, 2018, https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/534888/how-avoid-long-customs-and-immigration-lines-your-next-trip, <accessed April 25, 2025>

,

[9] Sampson, H. “U.S. goal: make international arrivals more welcoming,” Miami Herald, Feb 13, 2015, https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article10149239.html <accessed April 23, 2025>

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[10] Tarlow, P. Tourism Security: Strategies for Effectively Managing Travel Risks and Safety, Elsevier, Boston, 2014, p 88.

[11] National Public Radio (NPR) “Immigration officers are becoming ‘extreme’ in how they vet travelers entering the U.S.”  March 23, 2025, https://www.npr.org/2025/03/23/nx-s1-5335623/immigration-officers-are-becoming-extreme-in-how-they-vet-travelers-entering-the-u-s <accessed April 24, 2025>

[12] Chang, R, Conde Nest, “These Countries Have Issued Travel Advisories for the United States,” March 31, 2025 https://www.cntraveler.com/story/which-countries-have-issued-travel-advisories-for-the-us <accessed April 24, 2025>

[13] See Chicago Defender, May 14, 1998. https://www.efoxlaw.com/static/2024/02/customs.pdf, <accessed April 25, 2025>

[14] ACLU, May 12, 2000, https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-sues-us-customs-service-over-degrading-search-case-flying-while-black, <accessed April 25, 2025>

[15] Watson, Julie “German tourist with US visa reflects on being held in ICE custody for weeks” Associated Press March 30, 2025 as reported by NBC News San Diego, https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/politics/german-tourist-with-us-visa-reflects-on-being-held-in-ice-custody-for-weeks/3786489/ <accessed April 23, 2025>

[16] Watson, J. Associated Press, Weekslong “Lockups of European tourists at US borders sparks fears of  traveling to America,” https://apnews.com/article/border-tourists-german-canadian-detention-immigration-408cd27338e8065268fabc835f8b0c34, <accessed April 25, 2025>

[17] Huges, T and L Villagran, USA Today, “Tourists Detained by ICE say they were treated like ‘the worst criminal” https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/04/12/ice-tourist-detention-border-trump-immigration/82740260007/ <accessed April 25, 2025>