The US government has been urged to cut immigration queues at airports amid fears that long delays are damaging its tourism industry.
In an open letter sent by the US Travel Association to Homeland security secretary Jeh Johnson, it said the custom delays, sometimes lasting four hours, were discouraging overseas tourists from returning, which was hurting the economy.
The letter was sent on behalf of a group of major travel industry players including Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Hilton International, Orbitz Worldwide, several regional tourism offices and US international airports.
The group wants to see at least 1,000 additional Customs and Border Protection (CBP) staff deployed at the nation’s busiest international airports to reduce delay times.
The 2014 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill was recently passed and provides funding for a total of 2,000 new CBP staff this year.
The letter also called for the use of more effective metrics to monitor passenger flows and to continue the expansion of the Global Entry and Automated Passport Control programs.
In the letter, the US Travel Association highlighted tourism as the best performing export market . Overseas visitor spending reached $99 billion in 2012.
