International sporting events

Globally popular sporting events always increase visits to the location in which they happen. Host nations therefore have non-locals experiencing their culture again or the first time, and our social media gets flooded with opinions and viewpoints about their experience. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the intensity in which people debate their point, I am finding, seems to depend on whether the political relations between nations are positive/ negative. Unsure whether the relationship is positively or negatively correlated.

In the past few years, it seems as if unsuspecting Americans have been making more of an effort to visit European places, possibly to see what all the fuss is about. I say unsuspecting because local tourism seems to be sufficient for large groups of Americans, because the US has a lot to see and do - such groups do not feel the need for international travel. Has the decision for increased international travel changed the mind of Americans? Perhaps, and these groups might have finally understood why Europeans are proud of their culture. As a response, Europeans have been visiting the US (before the World Cup but especially around the event), and this time around they seem to be embracing very typical American food i.e. Tex-Mex and Southern. Although, they still seem to be shocked at the number of choices for a product at supermarkets (valid IMO - the choice for e.g. cereals might actually be getting out of hand let's face it). The funniest discovery has to be ranch sauce, however, which is one of the more palatable sauces to exist. It isn't mayo, but frequently mistaken as such. The thing which makes ranch notable is probably the garlic and chives (?) which basically makes it a sauce based on the sour cream and onion flavour for Walker's crisps.

Humour aside - all the increased camaraderie might have taken the temperature of the political contention down several notches. A bit more of a give and take? Either way, it might've been needed given the fights at the leadership level which have unfolded, since the past 18 months of the new administration. What the US and the non-European world probably need to understand, is European culture isn't going to disappear, especially since the US' food and art scenes are entirely based on it. Similarly, Europeans perhaps are now more understanding of the deviations of e.g. dishes to their traditional versions, due to the US being a melting pot of cultures.