What's happened to American traffic??

[cots]

I wonder if anyone else has noticed this problem?

We are based in Europe but our sites are hosted in the USA. This year we have seen a major drop off in traffic and sign ups from the USA and I mean major! America used to make up 65-75% of our traffic and sign ups. Now it's less than 30%. Our overnight sales from the USA have become virtually non existent whereas before, I used to be excited about getting back to work in the morning to see overnight sales!

I know we are not alone in this as other webmaster pals are experiencing exactly the same. I asked our hosting company if they had any ideas and they didn't. They could only blame the recession.

That doesn't work for me. The recession in Europe is just as bad, and not only that, but why would traffic fall so dramatically. Yes I can see the recession causing sign ups to slow down - but not traffic.

I have even seen exactly the same pattern at my TGP/Showcase sites. Surely if things were tight financially free site/pics would be even more popular, but not so.

It's almost as if someone is hijacking our US traffic!!!

So has anyone else spotted this and/or have any ideas why it is happening?