Obama close to signing Travel Promotion Act

The Travel Promotion Act is now very close to becoming law and was expected to be passed by the US Senate during the last week of February.
From here it goes to President Obama for signature and will then be enacted into law within the following two weeks.

According to Geoff Freeman, senior vice-president of the US Travel Association, the Act will be an important milestone in US tourism. “It will send out a signal to the world that the US is concerned and wants tourism business and is willing to compete for that business.”

Once the bill has become law, Geoff Freeman believes it will take up to a year before anything is seen externally. In the meantime a board is to be appointed and fund raising from the private sector to be implemented.

The bill’s purpose is to establish a non-profit corporation to better communicate US entry policies to international travellers and to promote leisure, business, and scholarly travel to the United States.  The legislation will also create an Office of Travel Promotion within the Department of Commerce to coordinate with the corporation.