This Must Be the U.S.

"We had been planning to come here some day," said Harry Lafont, 47, a French businessman on holiday in the U.S. this month with his wife Suzy. "When the dollar was devalued once again, we decided we could make the trip this year." Like the Lafonts, vacationers from around the world are taking advantage of dollar devaluations, cheap charter flights and their own higher incomes by joining the biggest tour ist invasion the U.S. has ever experienced. Led by the Japanese, British, West Germans and French in that or der, overseas travel to America in the first three months of 1973 was up by 29% over the same period last year. For eign visitors to the suddenly teeming U.S. shores are expected to number 3.5 million before the year is out, an in crease of 20% over 1972.

Overseas travelers in the U.S. have gradually agreed on a list of "must-see" places that can be covered in a two-or-three-week stay. The standard Grand Tour in the New World always includes New York (main attractions: skyscrapers and Harlem), Washington (Government buildings and, recently, Watergate), the Los Angeles area (Disneyland), and San Francisco (Fisherman's Wharf and Chinatown). For strict adherents to this two-coast itinerary, middle America is likely to exist in memories and snapshots as the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas or one of the national parks--all popular stops between the two Atlantic and two Pacific cities.

Offbeat Side Trips. Yet the "if-it's-Tuesday-this-must-be-California" approach to U.S. travel is rapidly giving way to more interesting arrangements. "We're getting more sophisticated, more intelligent visitors now," says Diane Cook, executive director of the International Visitors Service Council in Washington, D.C. "They want to see America in depth rather than just the image." As a result, there is increasing demand for offbeat side trips, such as visits to Western cattle ranches, Eastern college campuses and model cities like Reston, Va., or Columbia, Md. Also, as visitors return for second and third trips, they naturally want to see new places. "Florida will be the next new one because of the weather and the beaches," predicts H. David Seegul, president of Manhattan's Travellers International, a leading travel agent for overseas groups. "Then perhaps New Orleans or Colorado."

As first-timers, the Lafonts stuck pretty much to prime attractions. They had signed up three months in advance for an economy charter flight to the U.S. They set out, with a budget of $2,000 for fares, meals and hotels, on a whirlwind coast-to-coast tour of the U.S. During their 48-hour stay in Los Angeles, they sampled bumper-to-bumper freeway traffic, paid a visit to Disneyland, took a bus tour of Beverly Hills and a trip to the sprawling baroque mansion of Silent Film Star Harold Lloyd. Though pleased by the friendliness of Americans wherever they went, the Lafonts were perplexed by the lack of bidets in their hotel rooms and bothered by the transitoriness of American living. "The French would not accept these little wooden houses that don't last," observed Lafont. "We build our houses to last for generations."

As with many foreign visitors, they encountered serious communication problems. "In Europe, a U.S. tourist can always find someone who speaks English at the hotel or at the airport," said Lafont, who is limited to schoolboy English himself. "Here, nobody speaks French. We got along as best we could. In New York we couldn't understand anybody. They must speak some special slang."

Unlike Europe, where motorists can move between capitals--and cultures--with a few hours' drive, the wide-open spaces of the U.S. can take considerable time and money to cross. By far the cheapest way to do it is a special $99 bus pass available only to foreigners, entitling the holder to unlimited travel for 21 days. Taking advantage of that bargain, Keith Wright, 30, a British tooland diemaker, and his wife Denise, 25, managed to stay within their blue-collar budget yet travel 8,000 miles around the U.S. Since food, gasoline and other staples of everyday life are frequently higher-priced in Europe than in the U.S., the Wrights were pleasantly surprised at many of their bills. "Accommodations and eating in the U.S. were less expensive than we had thought."

Nevertheless, money is the one universal hang-up for foreign visitors. For one thing, non-U.S. currency is almost never accepted by American stores--as the dollar, despite its current troubles, still is in many overseas nations. U.S.Travel Service officials still recall with horror the case of a Canadian woman who broke her pelvis in a fall while visiting Los Angeles; outrageously, the hospital to which she was taken refused to admit her until Canadian funds were converted to cover a cash deposit. Medical treatment in general is a frequent source of irritation to visitors. "It costs $200 for treatment of a broken limb here," notes Seegul. "That can be pretty shocking to people from countries with socialized medicine."

Many also come from countries where tipping is institutionalized, in the form of a 10% or 15% service charge automatically added to restaurant checks and hotel bills. Though relentlessly drilled by tour guides on the more free-enterprise aspects of the custom in the U.S., many foreigners become hopelessly confused when the time actually arrives to tip someone. They can also get taken. Chizumi Otani, a Tokyo housewife whose U.S. visit was a 50th birthday present from her family, recently handed a $5 bill to her waitress in a San Francisco restaurant to pay for a $3.30 lunch. The waitress did not return with change, and the visitor was too polite to search her out and demand it. "I learned something--this tipping is a very confusing custom," Mrs. Otani concluded ruefully.

Sometimes Too Much. The overwhelming impression of most visitors to the U.S. seems to be one of friendliness. "People are easy to talk to here," says Sune Nilsson, 24, a student from Sweden. "You can just say 'you' to anyone, whereas in Sweden people like to be called 'sir' or by their title." Agrees Dutch Camera Distributor Peter Peperzak, 45, a four-time visitor to the U.S.: "The Americans are so open. You know immediately what they are. I like that, but sometimes it can be too much." The Wrights' happiest memory was of a helpful waitress in New York, but they felt that their long bus excursion had been partially spoiled by disagreeable drivers. "Maybe a bus driver's life is unpleasant," says Denise, "but on the buses it's like you are a pest come to annoy them."

Despite such occasional complaints, tourists clad in sport shirts and shorts are fast becoming as familiar in the U.S. as they are in the rest of the world. U.S. Travel Service officials calculate that they will leave behind some $3.7 billion this year, thus helping considerably to offset the $6.2 billion that U.S. tourists are expected to spend abroad in 1973. More important, most will return home to echo the sentiments of Suzy Lafont--and thereby ratify the ultimate value of national hospitality. Says she: "All our friends are waiting for us to return and tell them about our trip. We are going to make very good propaganda for America."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.