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Obama to approve US tourism promotion body
Friday, 01 Mar, 2010
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Foreign travellers to the US face paying a fee of $10 to help fund a planned new body to promote tourism to the country.
The Corporation for Travel Promotion public-private partnership is due to be rubber stamped by President Obama after winning Senate approval.
The initiative is funded through a matching program of up to $100 million in private sector contributions and a $10 fee on visitors to the US who do not pay $131 for a visa to enter the country.
The fee will be collected once every two years in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security’s Electronic System for Travel Authorisation.
This means the US taxpayer will avoid making any contribution.
The travel promotion partnership could attract 1.6 million additional visitors from other countries and create more than $4 billion in consumer spending a year.
The Corporation will work with the US departments of Commerce, Homeland Security and State to develop a nationally co-ordinated, multi-channel marketing and communications program to attract more international visitors and explain changing travel security policies.
International travel to the US has suffered due to negative perceptions about travel processes following increased security reforms following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
The US has lost visitors, with 2.4 million fewer overseas travelers last year than in 2000.
This is in a decade where 46 million more international travelers took long-haul trips.
US tourism authorities believe the country’s failure to keep pace with the growth in international long-haul travel has cost a combined 68 million visitors and more than $500 billion in total spending over the last ten years.
Caroline Beteta, chair of the US Travel Association and president and CEO of the California Travel & Tourism Commission, said: “We know how successful a public-private partnership to promote travel can be from our own experience at the state level.
“With the best minds coming together from government and private industry to boost international travel to our country, we can make travel an even stronger economic engine for America.”
Commenting on legislation which establishes the Corporation, US Travel Association president and CEO Roger Dow said: “The United States Congress has sent a clear message that travel is a high priority to our nation and that tangible steps must be taken to increase travel to and within the United States.”
by Phil Davies
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