CONTRAST: US vs. ITALY Outbound Travel …

Here’s some more food for thought about the miniscule 3.33% of US residents (note, this is NOT the percentage of US citizens and thus includes recent immigrants to the US who are green card or visa holders) who travel abroad by air every year.

Since this blog is focused on Italy, let’s look at a comparison between outbound travel from the US and from Italy. The statistics are very revealing.

This link to the US Commercial Service, United States of America Department of Commerce web site:

http://www.buyusa.gov/italy/en/312.pdf

… is a briefing document (almost like a press release actually) on Italian tourism. In it a statistic is quoted that, “One out of six adult Italians travel abroad each year …”

This means that 16.67% of adult Italians travel abroad every year versus 3.33% of Americans. FIVE TIMES as many Italians leave Italy for foreign lands as do Americans! FIVE TIMES!

I’ll still save some time in the future for my more in-depth editorial comments on these numbers, but it’s clear to me why we have the reputation we do overseas as often being rude, loud, abrasive, demanding, inflexible, and much too willing to talk and not listen. While these are symptoms of rudeness, my feeling is that the problem is one that’s more grounded in ignorance … it’s a lack of education, understanding, and experience.

More on this topic in future entries.

Ciao … Mark

http://www.italianrealestateassist.com