The U.S. Travel Association, American Hotel & Lodging
Association, American Gaming Association and other associations in the travel
industry have launched the Visit U.S. Coalition to work with the Trump
administration to reverse the decline in U.S. international inbound travel.
While global travel volume increased 7.9 percent from 2015
to 2017, the U.S. share of that volume has decreased during that time from 13.6 percent
to 11.9 percent, according to the U.S. Travel Association. Among the dozen top global
markets, the U.S. and Turkey are the only ones for which long-haul inbound
travel has declined since 2015. International travel is the U.S.'s highest
service export and second-highest export overall.
"By not maintaining our market share, the U.S. received
7.4 million fewer visitors from abroad, relative to 2015. We failed to see $32
billion in travel spending. This translates into 100,000 jobs that were not
created because we did not maintain our share," said USTA president and
CEO Roger Dow. Leisure travel was the biggest source of the decline, he said,
but business travel, particularly conferences and conventions, have been
affected by slow visa turnaround for delegates and higher rates of rejection
for delegates from certain regions.
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"There is a larger percentage [of visa] turndown [for]
people coming from China," said Dow, noting that the U.S. owned the
convention business 20 years ago but that Dubai, Shanghai and European markets now
rival the U.S. in convention facilities and are capturing more share. "We've
got to compete … so we've got to make sure we've got the international attendees
coming to our trade shows and our businesses."
Lobbying
for resources to address visa turnaround times and to speed up U.S. Customs and
Border Protection processes—without compromising security—could be among the
coalition's first efforts, its leaders said. "The Visit U.S. Coalition is
founded on the principle that we can have strong security but at the same time
welcome robust numbers of international business and leisure travelers. We can
do both," Dow said.