Bee Travel
Invite guests - from overseas
CHRISTINE HICKS- USTA Travel
Prognosticators say we Americans will spend more than $10 billion of our stimulus package money on travel this year, a wishful indicator that, despite a dodgy economy, not all of us will retreat into our shells. The euro is strong, thus the dollar weak, so it's a fairly safe bet (although a bet all the same) that we'll spend proportionately more of that money here in the United States than in Europe.

The flip side of all this is that we can expect more visitors than we've seen in a long time this side of the pond. If you've acquaintances in Europe, Canada or anywhere outside the United States, this may be the year they call and ask to visit.

And when they do, say "yes" - at least once.

(I do know of one family who made acquaintance with a Swedish family, and the subsequent influx of friends - and friends of these friends and their friends, and so on and so on - was so overwhelming that the time came when they did have to say "no" to what was becoming an incessant queue of Swedes traveling to America. Nice people, but abject strangers, while degrees of separation soared.)

This is your chance to bank hospitality, a chance to earn yourself a couple of nights or more that you can cash in when the economic pendulum swings the other way. Don't have any friends on foreign soil? Check in the newspaper, for it's that time of year when host families are being recruited by area organizations. Keep your eyes peeled for such opportunities to extend a hand, be it for a semester, a few weeks or even one night. Your stimulus dollars could plant seeds now that will yield fruit, given a little effort, in years to come.

It's not so strange, really, or hard to come by. I've opened my door to choral group participants traveling through town and students traveling through the United States in summer. Sometimes chance encounters on bus tours or cruises lead to friends of convenience - for often that's what they are. Still, there's some mutual understanding in such relationships and a certain trust that allows the arrangement to flourish. If you love to travel, what greater magnet can you base some semblance of a relationship on other than that they, too, like to travel? You don't need to go very far for that.

Who doesn't want a friend in France? Ireland? New Zealand?

Tour companies know this. They often include as a special feature dinner at the home of a "local." You or someone you know surely has returned from such trips, recounting those encounters as the most memorable, all because they've made "a new friend." Who doesn't respond to such encounters, for they indeed are special, unique, and individual? You, face to face with "the family of man" - it's a beautiful thing and an opportunity not to be wasted. Think reciprocity.

Stimulate the economy and your life experiences with an investment that pays dividends handsomely later: invite the world - well, some small piece of it - home.

(Christine Hicks-Usta has enjoyed more than 30 years of globe-trotting as a member of the travel industry. Direct questions to her at Bee Group Newspapers, P.O. Box 150, Buffalo, NY 14231-0150.)