What percentage of Americans don't have passports?

Factual Questions
41

Hey OP:

I don’t have a passport because I have never needed one. See, it costs an arm and a leg to actually go anywhere outside the US. Unless you want to end up on some really scary aircraft where you may be asked to do the piloting yourself, it costs thousands of dollars to go abroad and do it right (decent hotels, souvenirs, airline that gets you there without a little side trip to Libya first, etc.). I don’t have the money to travel, and even if I did, there is a very short list of countries I would visit. Europe isn’t too keen on Americans these days, so why give them my money? The Middle East is generally dangerous and Africa is, well, Africa. About the only places worth seeing, to me, anyway, are Australia, Iceland, Niue, India and Israel. And unfortunately I need both of my arms and my legs at the moment :frowning:

42

Well, let’s just come out and say it: money issues aside, an embarrassingly large percentage of Americans are culturally isolated from, ignorant about, and generally uninterested in the rest of the world.

The US’s size and geographic isolation mean that most Americans, unlike most Europeans, have little need or opportunity to visit other countries. Or learn another language. Or imagine that other people in other circumstances might see the world in ways other than the American way.

BTW, I have a passport. (He said smugly.)

43

An attitude one would expect from a foreigner. :slight_smile:

In fact, this perception is completely false.

44

It’s a bit more than that. Theres going to be a lot of generalizations coming up, so be prepared.

First comes the American obsession with privacy. American guidebooks do not list hotels with shared bathrooms- which is pretty common in Europe. No American hotels have shared bathrooms- at least none that i can think of. To most Americans, this is unthinkable. Staying at a hotel with a shared bathroom is as incomprehensible as staying in a homeless shelter.

Likewise for trains and public transportation. An American might sleep on a train, if they have a private sleeper car. In Europe they just pack 'em on six to a car. Your average American is not going to be happy about that. They are going to want a private room and a private bathroom. And that is if you can persude them to ride a train at all. Most Americans loathe any for of public transportation. You could probaby find a good percentage of them have never ridden a train or even a bus. They are not going to want to figure out a strange subway system, so they take cabs.

So many Americans restrict themselves to expensive hotels that basically cater towards Americans, and rent cars for trips that could easily be made on a train. They may restrict themselves to restraunts that take credit cards, use expensive guided bus tours and otherwise blow money. Many Americans simply don’t know that travel can be done cheaply. I just bought tickets to London from San Francisco for $200. It’s not magic- anyone can do it. I traveled in Europe for a month, with two people, for about 3K. It’s not hard at all.

For the most part, Americans just don’t know to travel without “doing it up right”. You’d be embarrased at the amount of cash they drop at places like Disneyworld. And many see the world as a sort of big Disneyworld- including the level of comfort and costs involved. Anything resembling “budget travel” is considered strictly for the young and reckless. A teacher, or a nurse, or whatever, would not consider it.

I think most Americans’ aversion to International travel goes much deeper. Many people I’ve spoken to are afraid of having to deal with another language. My uncle was freaked out about going to France because he didn’t think he could cope in a place where everyone speaks something different. Once he realized he could- well he’s been to Vietnam, Cuba, China, and now he’s living in India. It was just a matter of getting over the barrier of never having been somwhere where they don’t speak English.

Plus, and I might catch some flack for this, but a lot of Americans don’t keep up on International news. When I traveled to Europe, my family was convinced that a war was going to break out and I’d get stuck there. My doctor innoculated me for typhoid, which I’m pretty sure isn’t much of a problem in Paris. To many Americans, the world is a scary place, and you want to stay as close to home as possible.

45

The only reason I can imagine this being a problem is Americans not knowing the meaning of the word “ensuite”.

46

It does not cost “thousands of dollars” to go abroad. The $937/person itinerary I listed above includes airfare on a major airline, and a direct flight from the U.S. to London. The hotel was “highly recommended” as a “Frommer’s find” in Frommer’s guide, with “comfortable and pretty rooms”, “immaculate” bathrooms, and a “beautiful dining area”.

Want to travel in mid-April? Add $250.

47

The last time we did this thread I looked up prices to fly from Charlotte, NC. You have to add a lot more if you’re going from a smaller city, as a lot of Americans would be.

Besides, even $937 would be “prohibitively expensive” to a lot of people.

48

All of the Frommer’s guides do, and that’s one of the leading lines of travel books.

49

It does not cost as much as you think. You could quite easily spend 2 weeks in Turkey including airfare from the US West Coast for $1000. Turkish airlines flies out of Chicago several times a week and is as good an airline as the major US ones… unless you think Airbus A340s are scary. Turkey is inexpensive and friendly… one of the best countries to travel in.

Much of central Europe is inexpensive: Hungary, Poland, Slovakia etc.

Europe not keen on Americans? Hmm… I have been in Europe for more than a year and have not seen this.

Middle East dangerous? Israel is, but much of the rest is not (Dubai, UAE is a wonderful place and is safer than any similarly sized city in the US).

50

PS: Fares to Turkey, Caucasus and Eastern Med.

http://www.tursantravel.com/welcome.htm

I am not affiliated, but have used their services.

51

This is all very interesting but there is an assumption here that seems to me to seem to need verification. It looks like 25% or 30% of US adults have passports. Is that really a low number? What percentage of people in other countries have passports. I can understand that Europe would have more need for passports due to proximity but I’m not sure many other countries have higher numbers.

Of course, as an American, I think many people in the US are real keen to travel overseas due to the lack of exposure to some other countries, the cost, and, of course, the ability to take a “foreign vacation” in Canada or Mexico without a passport.

52

And my children, aged 9, 5, and 2?

53

Don’t forget that many Americans get two weeks holiday per year and are encouraged or outright required to take no more than one of those weeks as consecutive days, meaning one week off, then five days off spread throughout the rest of the year, usually doubled up with holidays to extend days off or provide long weekends.

Now a week in London or Paris or Tokyo is all fine and good, but it’s a helluva long trip to take for such a short stay, especially when you consider that travel is 1-2 days in both directions, depending on where you live. And anything more extensive than that, visiting multiple cities or countries? Simply impossible, not if you want to do it right, and actually get something from the trip without having to run around like a headless chicken with a camera strapped around its neck.

I have travelled extensively around the U.S. and around the world, but I’ve been fortunate enough to have the time and financial capability to do so without having to worry about getting back within five days.

My favorite time to be in London is Christmastime. Not terribly cold, though rainy, but festive and eminently enjoyable compared to New York.

As Dogface brought up, the family size issue is also important. Trends throughout Europe have more and more couples remaining child-free for the duration of their marriages. While birth rate is reducing in the U.S., most married couples here are still having at least one child. Travelling very long distances with a very small child is more trouble than most people would like to undertake, and travelling with an older child adds substantially to cost. The more children, the more money you have to come up with to make a trip. Add that to the time off factor, and the fact that the parts of other countries that adults find interesting are rarely thrilling to kids (museums and churches and archiitecture vs. anything remotely kidlike) and you’re looking at a recipe for Americans to find Disneyland a far better use of their limited vacation time and money than a trip for four to Rome.

54

I just want to point out that my responses in this thread had nothing to do with whether there was a “need to” travel overseas. I’m in favor of travel whatever the destination, and usually the farther the better. My point was that because the US is both geographically and culturally “big”, travel within the US does not necessarily equate to “staying home”.

I understand you’re proud of your country, justifiably so, and think Americans would benefit by visiting. I agree. No argument whatsoever. But the opinion that Americans who only travel within the US are homebodies is naive.

55

An aside: A real problem with touring London/England in the winter is that the sun goes down at 4:30 PM.

As far as going to Europe for vacation: It’s very cheap for me, as a single guy who has lower standards. I can and have followed a budget similar to the one above. Yet for a typical family of four, it’s quite a bit more money, and gets into the range of “serious money”. Like, you can buy a new car instead money. The airfare alone is probably at least $2000 since they have to travel in season.

So does the typical European family take such extreme trips and actually fly to such far flung destinations for their holiday? All I ever hear about is Germans and Britons going to Spain or France for holiday, which is about the equivalent of us going to Florida. Especially since those parts of Spain and France aren’t exactly the most culturally diverse places in the world. If half the shops are selling fish-and-chips and showing the football game, what is the point of using your passport?

56

But $937 per person multiplied by the five members of my family is most assuredly “thousands of dollars.”

I don’t mean to single out Waloon on this (just using your post as an example), because in past threads on this topic I have seen people mention that it really isn’t as expensinve as people think to travel abroad. I’m sure this is partly true – that Americans have a misconception about how expensive it really is.

But at the same time, it really is pretty darn expensive.

Also, it’s not like none of us travel. LOTS of American travel abroad. Heck, my brother and his wife take two trips a year overseas. They love to travel. But they also have no kids, they can coordinate their vacations days so they can both be off work together, and they can afford to do it. They make saving for travel a priority.

A lot of us don’t have that luxury. And a lot of us place travel lower on our list of things to spend lots of money on. I make paying my mortgage and saving for my kids’ college tuition a priority. $937 per person may not seem like a lot to a lot of people, but for me, and most people in my income bracket/family demographic it is prohibitively expensive.

57

Coming from an Australian, this is laughable at best and hypocritical at worst.

As an American who spent several months in Australia, I can say that outside of beers with different names, more Asian food, and the accent, Australia is almost exactly like the US/UK.

And don’t go spouting off about aboriganies and the like, beacause the US has natives that we abused as well.

Now, why Americans don’t get passports and travel abroad?

Cost? Nope. A week at Disney with 4 kids or whatever is rediculously expensive. I did a quick look at travelocity.com and the vaction package prices for disney and London/Paris are pretty similar. Golf Vaction in AZ? Expensive as hell. Skiing in Colorado? You see where I am going with this.

Lack of Time? Nope. You have the time to go to Orlando and eat at Medevil Times? It does not take 2 days to travel to Western Europe. From the east coast it takes just as long to get to Europe as it does to get to California. It does add sometime from the West Coast, but I would guess that going from to NY to Hawaii is of about the same length, and MANY people do that for a week. Time is a factor for the Far East, Asia, Africa, but to say you don’t have the time to go to Europe is a lie.

The real reasons people don’t go abroad is that they are lazy and scared. They are too lazy to figure out where to go and what to do in a foreign country. They are too scared of the language, food, public transportation, and terriorists. They are afraid that everyone will shout mean things at them.

58

Hey slu,: newsflash! A lot of Americans can’t afford a week at DisneyWorld, either!

59

Taking a 2-year-old to Turkey (or anywhere for that matter) may be trying on you, but when we were there in September, we met a New Zealand couple with their 11 year old who had traveled overseas with him every year for a long time.

The difference in cost for a hotel room for a couple vs a larger room for everyone is usually not that much. With airfare, some airlines will let a 2 year old go for half price.

It really is whatever your priorities are. When we lived in the US, we drove a 20 year old car, did not have cable TV (heck we had no TV at all for a while), and didn’t have a lot of “toys”. We chose to spend our money on trips to Central Asia, the Mid East and Europe.

Americans hardly travel at all… you never see them outside the big tourist destinations (I was quite surprised to run into a couple and their twin 8 year-olds from Missouri in Iran about 5 years ago).

Brists, Germans, Dutch, Kiwis and Aussies probably travel the most. Run into a foreigner in some dusty town in Uzbekistan and it will likely be one of the above.

60

The real reason I don’t go abroad (except for Canada) is that I seldom have the time and money at the same time. I did plan to go to England or Australia this winter, but I suddenly found myself buying a house and then I found myself out of a job. I have lots of time to travel now, but I need to watch the money. Also, I am required to actively look for work every week in order to get unemployment benefits; so taking a week or two to travel is out.

I’ll get a job eventually though, and then I’ll have two weeks per year. I often use my vacation time to work on my friend’s films, and two weeks isn’t even enough to do that. If Americans got four or five weeks of vacation per year, then you can bet that I’d have lots of stamps in my passport. (I do have one, BTW. It makes it much easier crossing the U.S./Canada border.)

Re: Disney. Disneyland is much too expensive. Last time I checked, it was $45 to get in plus $8 to park (even for motorcycles).