Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 3
General
Recommendations
FOR THOSE WHO LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY, it is always amazing
how many millions of people come to visit New York as tourists each
year. They come from all over the world. When you attend a Broadway
show, more often than not you will hear the folks sitting next to you speak-
ing a foreign language. (Come to think of it, in New York that really
doesn't prove our point, as nearly 60 percent of New Yorkers were born
somewhere else.) When you strike up a conversation with them, you find
they are here visiting from Germany, France, England, Holland, Japan,
and virtually every other country in the world. Sitting in a darkened the-
ater, you really can't identify the tourists absent their conversation. When
you walk down the street, however, you pick out the visitors immediately.
They are the folks with the cameras around their necks looking up at all
the tall buildings. Or their dress is a bit out of place. Sometimes you just
know that a person is not a native New Yorker without even being able to
say what it was that tipped you off. Average New Yorkers find it very easy
to look down the street and immediately spot tourists. Unfortunately, the
predatory criminals working the streets of New York can do it even better.
When they see tourists, they also see dollar signs hanging on easy targets.
Do you ever wonder if Americans and other Westerners look the same way
to local criminals while they are walking down the street in Bangkok or
Cancun or Cairo? The answer is: Yes, they do.
Why are tourists the frequent target of robbery and assault? The
reason is obvious. Affluent Americans traveling abroad probably have a
20
