READY, FIRE, AIM: How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away

But you won’t listen, you always stay and stay
How can I miss you when you won’t go away?

— from ‘How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away’ by Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks, 1969.

America used to appreciate tourists from foreign countries.  Most of them, anyway.

What happened?

Major tourism hubs like Las Vegas are seeing widespread layoffs due to the [tourism] downturn, forcing workers to get creative with their career pivots. Business Insider reported earlier this month that laid-off hospitality workers contributed to a 55% increase in dancer auditions at a Las Vegas strip club compared to the prior six months…

— from the story “International travel to the U.S. keeps sliding. Visits fell for the 8th straight month” by journalist Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert on Business Insider, January 17, 2026.

Texas is not a foreign country, although it sometimes feels like it.  Most of our tourists here in Pagosa Springs either come from Texas… or else they have big trucks with Texas license plates, which is almost the same thing.

So maybe the movers and shakers who run our little town needn’t to worry too much about the reported drop in tourist visits to the U.S. by foreigners.  Good thing, too… because we don’t have any strip clubs here that can hire out-of-work hospitality workers, like in Las Vegas. In fact, we don’t have enough hospitality workers in the first place, to fill the jobs we already have.

Journalist Christine Chung, writing for The New York Times this month, also wrote extensively about tourism industry jitters this year.

There’s one certainty about travel in 2026: uncertainty.

Vacationers throughout the Caribbean must suddenly factor the risk of U.S. military action in places like Venezuela or Cuba into their plans. President Trump’s immigration crackdown and restrictive border policies continue to cause some prospective travelers to think twice before coming to the United States. And for the adventurous hoping to explore Greenland, the threat of American annexation may be reason enough to hold off.

Holding off makes a lot of sense. 2026 is clearly the wrong year to visit America. Tourists aren’t stupid. (At least that’s my impression.)

Would you visit the U.S. if you had a foreign-sounding surname, and were wearing Huarache sandals? I suspect not. Especially if you spoke Spanish or Portuguese. You could easily wind up in a detention center.

But let’s not think about what might happen to the tourists — the tourists who visit Pagosa Springs, Colorado, for example, where we don’t yet have a tourist detention center.

I’m thinking about what happens to those of us who actually live here. Like me, for example.

The other day, I came across a 2017 article in Travel Post Monthly written by John Egan (the same John Egan, I do believe, who served briefly as an Archuleta County commissioner a number of years ago…)

Unspoiled and authentically refreshing Pagosa Springs, Colorado, is truly a visitor’s paradise for all seasons.

Pagosa Springs was indeed unspoiled and authentically refreshing at one point in its history. Until the tourists arrived. Now it’s the opposite of unspoiled.

Some of my readers may have taken a walk on the Riverwalk, along the San Juan River?  If so, you know that the trail leads through a vast wetlands area, and past the Town  Hall, the Senior Center, and the Growing Domes.

It also leads past the Springs Resort.

You can easily tell the difference between the authentically refreshing local residents you pass on your walk, and the authentically tedious tourists.

The locals are invariably walking their dog, and as they pass, they say “Hi” or “Howdy”. They might even say, “How’re you doing?” If they happen to be an acquaintance, you will stop and catch up on the latestst gossip.

The tourists, by contrast, have just come from soaking in the geothermal pools at the resort.  They’re wearing teal-colored bathrobes, smell like rotten eggs, and stroll past you without a word of greeting.

Here I am, doing my very best to represent authentic refreshment — as is required of every Pagosa resident nowadays — and I’m treated by these tourists as if I simply don’t exist.  Like, what am I… chopped liver?

In his collection of essays, Book of Disquiet, Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa accurately described the problem:

I abhor new ways of life and unfamiliar places. . . . The idea of traveling nauseates me. . . . Ah, let those who don’t exist travel! . . . Travel is for those who cannot feel. . . .

The great Greek philosopher Socrates taught that philosophy is preparation for death.

For everyone else, there’s tourism.