Major boost for US promotion efforts
For the first time in decades, the USA is edging towards a new travel promotion policy following the approval of ‘The Travel Promotion Act of 2009’ by the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation.
The legislation creates a public-private partnership with a budget of up to $200million annually to attract international visitors to the United States.
Research suggests that the programme could drive $4billion annually in new spending by international travellers to the USA.
“Our nation’s economy is struggling and international travel promotion is part of the solution,” said Roger Dow, president and ceo of the U.S. Travel Association. “This much-needed legislation will help the United States to create thousands of new jobs and welcome billions in new spending by international visitors.”
The Travel Promotion Act specifies that travel promotion would be paid for by private sector contributions and a $10 fee on foreign travellers from countries that do not pay $131 for a visa to enter the United States.
Overseas visitors spend an average of $4,500 per person, per trip in the United States. The move will help to address the decline in international travel to the U.S. which fell by 10 per cent in the first quarter of 2009 according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Despite a weak dollar that made the U.S. a travel bargain and 48 million more people around the world travelling ‘long haul’, the United States welcomed 633,000 fewer overseas visitors in 2008 than in 2000 - remaining below pre-9/11 levels of overseas visitors for the seventh consecutive year.
Had the U.S. kept pace over the last eight years with the average growth in global overseas travel, it would have received an additional 58 million visitors.
The U.S. Travel Association is the national, non-profit organization representing the $740 billion travel industry. The U.S. Travel Association’s mission is to promote and facilitate increased travel to and within the United States.
www.ustravel.org
