The US looks to three million more
Next year will be the first time since the closure of all United States Travel and Tourism Administration (USTTA) offices that the country has an active integrated tourism marketing programme.
This follows the signing of the Tourism Promotion Act by President Obama last month.
The Act will include the levy of a fee for completing the obligatory Electronic System Travel Authorisation (ESTA) for UK visa waiver visitors to the US. Each ESTA application is valid for two years regardless of the number of visits made.
The Visit USA Association’s Chair, Kate Burgess-Craddy is confident that the surge of interest in holidays to the USA this year will not be damaged by the introduction of the new ESTA fee.
"Compared to the travel taxes imposed by some other countries, the new ESTA fee is fairly minimal. When taken in context, the likely $15-$18 charge is only a small part of the overall cost of a holiday and is far less than many other countries charge for entry or departure taxes or a full visa.
"Moreover, an ESTA lasts two years and covers all entries within that period - it's not as if it's paid every trip, which is mostly the case elsewhere. Whilst nobody likes taxes, the ESTA fee is unlikely to prove a major barrier for travel to the USA. I therefore expect it to have little impact on visitor numbers to the USA and not arrest the surge of interest that our members have reported.”
Roger Dow, president and ceo of the US Travel Association spoke at the ITB show in Berlin last month and said that there had been more than 16 million ESTA applications with a rejection rate of less than 1 per cent.
The budget for the first year will be $10 million, funded by the Department of Commerce, and will be used to set up the marketing organization. This will rise to $100 million in the second year, with a 50% per cent match by industry.
The budget for years three, four and five will rise to $200 million with, again, $100 million from ESTA - the maximum allowable – and a 100 per cent industry match.
Roger Dow expects this expenditure to help bring in an extra three million international visitors by 2012.
