"You guys are from the States, yes?"

Our interlocutor, speaking in the crisp cadences of the British Caribbean, was a woman in her mid-50s with a food stall along the Rainbow Highway in Belize. "We're from Seattle," I acknowledged. "Have you been?"

She sighed.

"My daughter lives in L.A. I've been trying to go visit her — I'd love to see Disneyland — but my visa application has been rejected twice. It costs $100 to apply, and that's about as much as I make here in a week. One has to go to the embassy in person, and that takes up a whole day. I can't afford to try again. They keep your money whether you're accepted or not."

Travel is booming worldwide — except in the United States. And that woman's experience represents just one reason why.

Overseas arrivals to the U.S. have declined 11 percent this decade, to 23 million in 2007 from 26 million in 2000. Travel is the world's largest industry, currently worth $5 trillion, and it is growing 6 percent a year. It employs almost a quarter of a billion people. And yet the U.S. is missing out on this wonderful human commerce.

Californians have a keen understanding of this. Travel spending in the Golden State is about $90 billion a year. With the U.S. dollar as soft as confetti, you would think droves of overseas visitors would be arriving to spend their pounds, euros and other currencies. Yet foreign arrivals are still down from their peak in 2000 at Los Angeles International Airport, the West's top gateway for international travelers.

Why? American arrogance. The United States is a crass, greedy and rude host.

To start, we treat foreigners as criminals until proved otherwise.

These are the 29 countries whose citizens may visit the U.S. without a visa: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Brunei, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Britain. It's a near lily-white list. The rest of the world's people — all 5 multicolored billion of them — are suspect. And overseas, they know the U.S. thinks that.

Canada, by comparison, accepts nonvisa visits from citizens of more than 50 countries. The European Union exempts all EU-member nations, plus another 43 countries, including South Korea, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. So it's easier for a Mexican citizen to visit Europe than the United States.

We're no more helpful once a visitor arrives. I thought about this recently when reading a freeway sign. It said, concisely, "O'Hare next left." I read English, so I was able to get to the airport and fly home. But suppose you speak, oh, Cantonese?

There's an international symbol — an outline of an airplane — used on direction signs all over Europe, Asia and in Mexico. Not here. "Costs too much to add signs for all them furaners." That's what a highway official once told me when I asked about fixing this.

For those still determined to visit the U.S., the visa process involves going in person to a U.S. Embassy or consulate for an interview. Why are people turned away? Scruffiness, unsuitability, past contributions to Greenpeace or general ickiness. Read the State Department guidelines — visitors must satisfy consular officers that they deserve to enter. But consular officials do not have to explain reasons for rejection, and they don't.

A colleague of mine has a business in Brazil, and one of his investors conceived the idea of taking his family to Walt Disney World. This wealthy businessman, who could buy a whole hotel in the U.S., never mind hotel rooms, flew to Sao Paulo, paid $500 ($100 a person) to apply for a visa and patiently spent an hour answering questions. Two weeks later he was turned down. The letter suggested that he reapply ($500 more, please!) but, surprise, he took his family to Europe. Brazilians don't need visas to enter the EU.

The nonrefundable U.S. visa application fee recently went up to $131. Luckily for many visitor wannabes, their currencies are climbing while the dollar is shredding. Unluckily for us, we're too busy protecting the homeland from supposedly scurrilous foreigners to let them in. Until we change our official and unofficial attitudes toward the world, 5 billion people will pass us by. We're missing out on a lot more than just money — but we're missing out on a lot of that too.

Eric Lucas is a Seattle-based travel and business writer. He wrote this commentary for the Los Angeles Times.