Thank high unemployment and an impending presidential election for what many meetings and travel industry leaders consider a big win: the U.S. government's first formal travel strategy, designed to boost travel in the country primarily by streamlining entry procedures—and thereby create more jobs.
"It's an election year, so you can see a focus on these key initiatives," says Michael McCormick, executive director of the Global Business Travel Association, which represents corporate travel managers, including those responsible for meetings management. "Whatever the motive, it's certainly very welcome. It's good for the industry, and it's good for the economy."
Eric Hansen, director of domestic policy for the U.S. Travel Association—the umbrella organization for U.S.-based travel, hospitality and meetings associations—praises the new initiative.
"It exemplifies how focused the government is on creating jobs and that it has identified the travel industry as a key component of the economy," he says.
In unveiling the new travel policies during a speech at Walt Disney World in January, President Obama called the travel industry "one of our nation's leading service sectors." He set no specific goal for an increase in inbound travel, but the White House said improved international travel could generate an extra 1 million jobs domestically over the next decade. Inbound travel accounted for 1.2 million of the 7.5 million jobs attributed to the U.S. travel and tourism industry in 2010, according to the White House.
The president said that nearly 60 million international visitors helped the U.S. tourism industry generate over $134 billion in 2010, or 2.7 percent of gross domestic product. But the country's share of total global spending by international travelers fell more than 30 percent from 2000 to 2010, according to the White House, or from 17 percent to 11 percent of the global market. Obama blamed stiffer competition from international destinations for the decline in U.S. market share, but also called out stricter government security measures at the nation's airports following the Sept. 11, 2001, Al Qaeda terrorist attacks.
The president's Executive Order contains several provisions, including a presidential task force to formulate a strategic plan by mid-April to improve travel to, and within, the United States. But executives for industry organizations see concrete gains from the following measures in the Order:
- Expand and make permanent Global Entry, which allows travelers who pass a rigorous background check and personal interview to bypass often long immigration lines and instead present machine-readable passports and their fingerprints at automated kiosks. In addition to the 20 airports that already have Global Entry kiosks, the program will extend to airports serving Minneapolis, Charlotte, Denver and Phoenix.
- Increase efforts to expand the Visa Waiver Program from 36 countries. Taiwan was nominated for the program, and U.S. Travel proposes adding Brazil, Argentina, and Chile to the list. Visitors from countries participating in the program may enter the U.S. without first obtaining a visa.
- Increase the federal government's capacity to process non-immigrant visa applications in Brazil and China by 40 percent this year, with the goal that 80 percent of non-immigrant applicants are interviewed within three weeks of U.S. officials' receiving an application. In his speech at Disney World, the President said he would send 100 more consular officials to China and Brazil.
Visa issues have prohibited about 116,000 international attendees and exhibitors from participating in U.S.-based events annually, according to a study conducted in 2010 by Oxford Economics for the Center for Exhibition Industry Research. Without visa barriers, the domestic economy could realize increased business sales totaling $2.4 billion annually from the extra international participants, including $540 million in combined event registration fees and exhibit space spending, the study showed.
Under the previous rule, people applying for a visa to travel to the United States from Brazil and China could wait more than three months for an in-person interview with U.S. consular officials. Such a long lead time effectively prohibits many people from potentially attending events in the United States.
Visa processing in Brazil and China jumped more than 50 percent in the first quarter of fiscal year 2012 over the same period in 2011, according to the U.S. State Department. Despite that, the department in January said the average wait time for visas in China is now two days; 15 days in Brazil and six days in Brasilia.
The number of travelers from Brazil and China is projected to grow from today’s numbers by 274 percent and 135 percent, respectively, by 2016, according to U.S. Travel.
Beyond any quantitative measure of how successful these programs ultimately are, McCormick says that a country's entry procedures are an issue that affects peoples' attitudes.
“In a global economy, the freedom to move past checkpoints efficiently--whether you feel a country welcomes you as an inbound business traveler--can really shape decisions by companies about where they do business,” he says.
Given the extra attentiveness of politicians to voters in an election year, along with the country's urgent focus on jobs and the economy, U.S. Travel has revived a campaign to cultivate key legislative supporters. The campaign began in 2009 when politicians, including President Obama, criticized corporate meetings that they considered lavish or wasteful at a time when the economy was cratering. An AIG meeting at the St. Regis Monarch Beach, in Dana Point, Calif., was especially slammed, since the company had just received a multi-billion dollar government bailout.
This year U.S. Travel has targeted 43 elected officials to lobby who representing the top 12 states for meetings and events. Hansen cites Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, who is also the Senate Majority leader and thus at present the single most powerful U.S. senator, as one of what U.S. Travel calls its "champions" of travel.
"This is a defensive campaign," Hansen explains. "We want to have entrenched support on Capitol Hill so that if something happens similar to 2009, we'll be ready to snap into action.
"We're going to connect them with meetings and conventions and trade shows that are happening in their own state or district," Hansen continues, "to give them a kind of back-of-the-house tour so they can see first-hand the power of this industry and what it means to their local communities."
To help in its efforts, U.S. Travel devised what it says is the first electronic dashboard of meeting and event activity in specific states or districts. With hotel data supplied by Smith Travel Research and supplemented with other economic data, U.S. Travel plans to e-mail dashboard updates quarterly to the targeted legislators.
Hansen said that meeting planners can play an important role in U.S. Travel's efforts. "Our goal is to get a lot of people to invite members of Congress to tour events in their districts," he said.
For GBTA members who want to get involved in D.C. lobbying, GBTA will offer its annual Legislative Symposium this year from June 19-20. About 100 to 150 people typically attend the gathering, in which they receive a briefing about legislative priorities and talking points and then go to Capitol Hill for arranged meetings with their representatives.
McCormick acknowledged the dim view many people have of the political process but offered hope that citizens can create real change in Washington.
"Washington is very challenging," he says. "It's all about influence, it's an insider game—that would be most people's impression.
“What I found," he continues, "is that although a lot of that it true, with a sustained effort and laser-focus on the issues that matter, it's surprising the impact you can have."
