Elated by the U.S. House passage of the Travel Promotion Act last week, the Travel Industry Association this week remained "hopeful" that the U.S. Senate might also approve the measure before Congress adjourns for the year. "Not all hope is lost," said one Senate staff member, but amid the financial crisis and desire to end the legislative session for the year, chances for approval are slim. TIA president and CEO Roger Dow acknowledged that the bill faced "an uphill battle" in the Senate and with the Bush administration.
"The financial rescue plan is dominating at the moment, and no one knows what might pass," the press secretary for Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said Tuesday. Lugar only this month agreed to co-sponsor the bill, one of 52 senators to do so as of last Friday. The Lugar spokesman said the senator agreed to support the bill after "the head of the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Bureau talked to the senator about the bill" during a trip home.
Approved by House voice vote last week, the Travel Promotion Actcalls for the creation of a nonprofit Corporation for Travel Promotion to both promote travel and tourism to the United States and provide foreign visitors with information about entry requirements, documentation and fees required to enter the country. TIA's Dow said the measure would "jump-start America's struggling economy and create thousands of new jobs" by "attracting millions of additional international travelers to the United States," and "end multibillion dollar losses in visitor spending."
The act calls for the nonprofit group to devise campaigns to address perceptions that might limit travel to the United States and maximize economic and diplomatic benefits of travel to the United States. It would create of a 15-member board to develop plans and budgets that could range between $10 million and $100 million. Funding of the corporation is to come from both private donations and a $10 user fee imposed on inbound international travelers who "do not pay $131 for a visa to enter the United States."
Unlike most other developed nations, the United States doesn't promote tourism to attract visitors. While the weakness of the dollar has prompted some tourism here, "2 million fewer overseas travelers visited the United States in 2007 than in 2000," TIA stated.
"The decline in overseas travel since 9/11 has cost America 46 million visitors, $140 billion in lost visitor spending and $23 billion in lost tax revenue. If the United States had simply kept pace with global travel trends, an additional 340,000 jobs would have been created in 2007," said Dow.
If the bill fails in the Senate, TIA will have to "start all over again," with a brand new Congress in January, TIA vice president of public policy Rick Webster told the Society of Government Travel Professionals last month. Since it was introduced in the House last fall, the TPA bill has garnered 245 co-sponsors.
In related legislative matters, the National Business Travel Association this week "praised the passage by the U.S. Congress of a homeland security appropriations bill that will help to facilitate the global business travel market while enhancing U.S. border security." TIA likewise applauded the action. Signed by the president Tuesday, the bill provides funding for government security initiatives, such as Global Entryand US-Visit. The legislation authorizes $10 million to enhance and expand Global Entry, designed to speed immigration checkpoint processing upon reentry to the United States for frequent, low-risk business travelers. The bill also provides $300 million in funding for US-Visit. However, the bill calls for a holdback on $75 million of this amount until two pilot tests to collect biometric data are completed. One pilot would have airlines collect and transit biometric exit data, while the other would have U.S. Customs and Border Protection do that, according to NBTA.
"By providing business travelers with quick, convenient and secure exit and entry identity processes, these initiatives will help to promote the flow of international commerce," said NBTA executive director and COO Bill Connors.
The funding measure also provides $8.75 million for 173 new customs and border control positions at U.S. airports to improve and hasten the current security screening process for travelers and $500,000 to hire staff for an expansion of the Visa waiver program.
Meanwhile, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives on Monday endorsed a new bill that guarantees travelers' rights in cases of laptop seizure at U.S. borders. The Travelers Privacy Protection Act of 2008, introduced by U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and co-sponsored by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., was introduced a week ago. ACTE executive director Susan Gurley said the bill "requires U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials to demonstrate reasonable suspicion--and to obtain a warrant--before seizing a laptop or other electronic device and randomly copying the data it contains."
While officials acknowledged that the bill was introduced too late in the session to garner approval, they nonetheless were pleased that it was introduced to set the stage for reintroduction in January.
"This bill introduces a much higher, and necessary, level of accountability to the laptop examination process," said Gurley. "It requires the authorities to seek a warrant, which makes it subject to law. It puts an end to the indiscriminate ransacking of data. It allows the traveler to witness the process, and it limits the time officials can hold a traveler's hardware. It even provides compensation for damage to a traveler's computer."