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Daily Mirror
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
American tourist who'd never left the US comes to UK and is instantly let down
Sean Miller, a comedian from New York, is one of the participants of the new Travel Virgin Show, which takes people abroad for the first time. He touched down in London this week A 'travel virgin' who had never been out of his country before has been shocked and delighted in equal measure by the UK. Sean Millea is a 28-year-old living in New York City who had never been out of the US until earlier this week. He is in good company. By some estimates, around 23% of Americans have not traveled internationally, while a quarter of Britons have never boarded a plane or ferry to go on holiday abroad. Whether it's the cost and hassle of sorting out a passport (close to 50% of Americans don't have one currently, according to the Apollo Academy) that is putting people off, or the fact that they're quite happy at home, clearly travel is not for everyone. Stand-up comedian Sean had been content exploring the US, until he was given the chance to hop across an international border for the first time by Jetpac. The travel eSim brand has chosen several 'travel virgins' to star in its docu-series, hosted by Love is Blind's Benaiah. When it airs, it will see newbie travelers swept away on an all-expenses-paid journey to an exotic destination. The Mirror spoke to Sean the day after his arrival in the UK. He was standing amidst the hustle and bustle of Borough Market, digesting a laden pudding from the viral Humble Crumble and reflecting on a deeply disappointing first brush with British pastry. "The pork pie. My friend Marshall told me to get it. I didn't love that. It was sort of tasteless and hard to eat, you really need to put in muscle to get it open. It looked like a little castle. I did, however, like the Humble Crumble," Sean explained. "I also don't like the candy here. American candy is full of chemicals, which is why it tastes delicious." Sean was not opposed to the idea of travelling abroad, but given the demanding nature of his comedy career, he had never found the right time to do so. "I don't ever have money like that. I have been to Florida, California and Chicago, but I'm uncultured to anywhere outside of the US," Sean said. While he may have found the pork pies a little underwhelming, the American in London was excited to throw himself into the culture, having grown up on a string of British classics such as the Beatles, David Bowie and Shakespeare. Visits to the Globe and Abbey Road were ticked off on his first evening. In terms of vibe, "London feels like New York if you're not paying attention." When it comes to the actual travelling process, Sean found it to be a mixed bag. "I got a passport, a few months ago on a whim, and there was some visa thing I had to get. I ended up just tapping myself out of the airport, no questions asked. It was pretty smooth," he explained. "I did get scammed at a currency exchange. I got half my money back." The first episode of The Travel Virgin Show will go live on June 30. The company argues now is the right time for it, given the steady rise in travel since the coronavirus lockdowns, when people were pent up, unable to get away and desperate to get back out on the road. According to one recent poll, 76% of Gen Z and 72% of Millennials say they're more interested in travel than they used to be. And passport applications have surged by up to 38% in key markets like the UK, suggesting the appetite for exploration is stronger than ever. Aditya Goyal, CEO at Jetpac. "There's a huge group of people who are only now taking their first step abroad—and we think they deserve the same tools as anyone else. Jetpac is here to make that first time seamless, empowering, and unforgettable."
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Here's How Much Tech Products Made in the US Cost Compared To Mexico, Canada and China
For decades, American tech companies have built and assembled their devices in emerging markets while concentrating their domestic efforts on product design and software development — because, according to CNN, the profit margins are much higher than for knocking together phones and computers in factories. President Donald Trump aims to disrupt that dynamic with tariffs that turn cheap foreign goods into expensive imports to spur domestic manufacturing — including the tech gadgets that define our modern lives. But it costs much more to make tech products in the U.S. than in places like China, Mexico and even Canada. Here's what you need to know. Check Out: Read Next: Many factors contribute to the high cost of making tech products in America compared to lower-cost manufacturing countries — but none is more consequential than the cost of labor. According to Trading Economics, the average manufacturing wage in the United States is $28.80 an hour. According to Trading Economics, the average manufacturing wage in Canada is the equivalent of $22.56 an hour. According to the Apollo Academy, the average Chinese manufacturing employee makes 20% of what an American makes doing the same job, which works out to $5.76 an hour. According to North American Production Sharing, the average manufacturing wage in Mexico is $4.50 an hour. Learn More: Labor is the biggest factor, but not the only one by a long shot. It's challenging to say definitively what tech products would cost if they were made in one country or another because of variables like: The type of tech products — different countries are much better at making some kinds of devices cost-effectively than others. Proximity to the destination country. For example, according to logistics and supply chain firm Visigistics, it costs $5,000 to ship a 53-foot container from China to Los Angeles, but only $600 from Tijuana, Mexico. Energy costs. Institutional knowledge. For example, Molson Hart, founder and CEO of consumer products company Viahart and legal tech company Edison, writes that Taiwan dominates the world's semiconductor chips market because no other country has been able to compete at making these crucial tech components better, faster or cheaper, much less all three. Manufacturing infrastructure. Automation. Governmental regulations. The decades-long trend of outsourcing American tech manufacturing has been so near-total that there's very little U.S. tech production left to compare to places like China. One of the last exhaustive analyses came from PCMag in 2023, which found that the tiny remaining number of domestic tech manufacturers dealt mostly in high-end, high-quality, high-performance and high-cost consumer electronics, audio equipment, PCs and e-bikes designed for ultra-luxury consumers — and even most of those contain many foreign components. Therefore, the only real comparison can be hypothetical, so why not hypothesize using the most familiar and iconic American-designed, Chinese-built gadget in the world, the iPhone? According to CNBC, analysts believe labor costs alone would push up the price of an American-made iPhone 16 Pro by 25% from $1,199 to $1,500. When including the myriad other factors, the price per phone could triple to $3,500 as Apple would have to spend three years and $30 billion re-shoring just 10% of its supply chain to the U.S. A comprehensive report from Mexican manufacturer Novalink determined that 'it is cheaper to manufacture in Mexico than in China' because of the dramatic savings in shipping, labor, currency exchange rates, energy costs and the cost of warehousing and factory rentals. However, China has vast, purpose-built infrastructure that Mexico does not and immediate proximity to the supply chains that iPhone production depends on. In the end, a Mexico-built iPhone would probably be comparable or slightly more expensive than those currently made in China. If Apple moved to Canada, it would face all of the disadvantages of being made in America, but with slightly cheaper labor costs. More From GOBankingRates 5 Luxury Cars That Will Have Massive Price Drops in Spring 2025 6 Hybrid Vehicles To Stay Away From in Retirement 7 Luxury SUVs That Will Become Affordable in 2025 This article originally appeared on Here's How Much Tech Products Made in the US Cost Compared To Mexico, Canada and China Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
