Come back America all is forgiven.

I wasn't that surprised to read this article in The Times alerting us to the fact that the tourist industry is on a bit of a go slow these days. What I did find hard to believe was the fact that the Japanese visitor to these shores has fallen by around 24%. That's certainly not the impression one gets from around these parts. Indeed, the odd phenomena known as 'the lone Japanese woman clutching a map' seems to be on the rise along with 'the pair of Japanese women clutching a map and looking for Anne Hathaway's Cottage'. And certainly by my calculations nearly every other coach seems to contain 'lots of young and beautiful Japanese women who smile at you if you wave'. Anyway, Japanese beauties aside, what the article in The Times was more concerned with was of course, the missing Americans. The article tells us that the Americans only made three million visits to the UK last year, which by any calculation (except maybe McDonald Math) is truly appalling.
But before we start to go cold turkey and begin to worry if they'll ever come back, the truth is we haven't had American visitors in any great numbers on this majestic isle for quite a long time. The American voice hasn't brought down brickwork on the Streets of Stratford upon Avon since the 70's, which in my view was the hay day of what I would call 'The Classic American Tourist'. Wonderful times when we were all guaranteed a laugh. Happy days when Stetson, the numerous cameras, the loud demeana, the lumberjack shirt and those ridiculous all-in-one zipped jump suits were the order of the day. When the American was the world's best stereotype and perhaps more than that, when the American had money to spend. Now of course they are as broke (and as European) as we are.
The other point worth making is that over the years we have caught up and even overtaken our
cousins from over the sea in so many areas that made us naturally curious about their visits. We no longer gaze in wonderment at their superior dentistry. Their automobiles are nearly the same size as ours and face lifts and wigs abound on most UK streets.
What was different about those days of course was the fact that the Vietnam war was drawing to a close and the person (Kennedy) in the White House lent a sort of 'lightness of Being' (OK forget the Cuban Missile crisis) to everything that was said and done in America's name. Something that we can only hope returns at least for a while, now that America has another 'cool' President.