I was recently saddened to see a video of the residents of Barcelona spraying water on tourists as they dined outdoors at a local restaurant. Like a number of other cities and countries in Europe, the natives are fed up with having so many tourists (predominantly Americans) visiting them. Some have gone as far as to propose a tax on tourists for just stepping on their soil. How dare we walk around their hallowed cities in our Nikes!

Just this past June, the residents of Venice walked around a local train station with picket signs telling Jeff Bezos to take his wedding elsewhere. It is surprising that the Venetians do not want these lovely, and no doubt expensive nuptials (purportedly $50 million spent) to take place in their city. They even protested while the wedding took place. Poor Jeff and Lauren—they probably felt unwanted.

I find this behavior a bit odd, especially when one considers that without tourism Europe produces virtually nothing that Americans want (other than sports cars, luxury shoes, and clothing, which we could do without). For example, besides olives, some decent wine, and soccer teams, I cannot think of another product that Spain or Barcelona produces. (Valencia Oranges?...meh.)

What they do produce, for the most part, are things we do not need—items that we could just as easily obtain from elsewhere. I would think Europeans would want the good old American greenback on a regular and consistent basis.

I strongly believe we should honor their wishes and stop visiting them. There is so much to see in the U.S. to keep us busy for a very long time, and spending our vacation dollars here would boost our economy. I can think of at least 30 tourist attractions and states in the U.S. that I have not visited. Sometimes, I think the only reason people go through the hassle of travelling to Europe, or anywhere abroad, is just to be able to say what they did on their summer vacation and to demonstrate they are affluent and cultured. Once you have visited the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel, every other church in the world is, well, just another church. After Europe has gone five to ten years without American tourists, they will be begging us to return. Their airlines will be offering free roundtrip tickets. The French and Germans will no longer have any rudeness left in their bodies. They will be kind, warm, and fuzzy. The Spaniards and Italians will lose all of their arrogance and sophistication. They will never criticize our goodfaith attempts to converse with them in Spanish and Italian again or tell us when we can and cannot have our cappuccinos and gelato. If we say jump, they will say, “how high?”. If we want pepperoni on our pizza, they will gladly oblige and say, “how much?”. They will be like the salesclerk in the movie Pretty Woman, when Richard Gere announces… “He is going to spend an “obscene” amount of money!” His reply, and I paraphrase: “If you want sucking up, you came to the right place.”

A few years with half-empty restaurants, shops, and museums would teach Europeans and others an important lesson—never bite the hand that feeds you. Thank you for indulging me. This will be my last article for a while as I am traveling to Portugal. (As an additional update, my golf clubs have still not left my trunk!)

Anthony J. Enea, Esq., is the managing attorney of Enea, Scanlan and Sirignano, LLP of White Plains, New York. He focuses his practice on Wills, Trusts, Estates and Elder Law. Anthony is the Past Chair of the Elder Law and Special Needs Section of the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) and is the past Chair of the 50+ Section of the NYSBA. He is a Past President and Founding member of the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA). Anthony is also a Past President of the Westchester County Bar Foundation and a Past President of the Westchester County Bar Association. He is also fluent in Italian. He can be reached at (914) 948-1500 or at a.enea@esslawfirm.com

Please note that any opinions expressed in the articles contained herein are solely those of the author(s) and do not constitute positions taken by the WCBA.