SECURITY coupled with increased ease of movement through visa reform are key to US job creation and the recovery of America’s travel and tourism industry.
Roger Dow, president and CEO of the US Travel Association (USTA), recently discussed the impact of 9/11 on the travel industry in advance of the 10 year anniversary and outlined a series of forward-thinking principles to strengthen security and help eliminate barriers which are discouraging travel to and within the US.
With a focus on reducing traveller wait times, improving customer service and replacing a one-size-fits-all approach with a risk-based approach, the principles strike a balance between security and travel facilitation.
“The decade following 9/11 has seen significant changes in the way Americans, and those who visit America, travel,” said Dow. “We must continue keeping travellers safe with the highest level of security, but we must incorporate principles that improve facilitation and encourage travel.”
Dow shared economic data since the terror attacks of 9/11 which showed:
• Since 9/11, international travel has represented a lost opportunity for the US economy and American jobs. While global long-haul travel grew 40 per cent from 2000 to 2010, overseas travel to the US during this same timeframe rose just two per cent. Despite more travellers worldwide, the US share of the global travel market dropped from 17 per cent in 2000 to 12.4 per cent in 2010.
• If America had simply kept pace with the growth in global long-haul international travel in the decade after 9/11, 78 million more travellers would have visited the US, adding a total of $606 billion to the economy and supporting more than 467,000 additional jobs annually.
• The past decade has been difficult for business travel, with total volume declining 21 per cent between 2000 and 2010. This was due to the immediate impact of 9/11 and by the meetings crisis in the late 2000s. Business travel returned to growth mode in 2010, increasing nearly four per cent, and growth is expected through 2014, although at a much slower rate ranging from 1.2 per cent to 1.7 per cent annually.
• Leisure travel has been quite resilient in the decade since 9/11, with volume increasing 17 per cent since 2000 despite a few years of negative growth. This growth underscores the importance of travel to Americans. Slow but steady growth of about two per cent annually is expected through 2014.
The USTA has welcomed the consensus in Washington which is emerging for the reform of the US visa system and expansion of the visa waiver programme as well as separate job creation plans by leaders of the US Conference of Mayors (USCM) and US Chamber of Commerce building on recommendations by President Obama’s Jobs and Competitiveness Council and the Discover America Partnership to improve America’s visa system for international travellers visiting the US.
The activity echoes the USTA’s initial recommendations for the visa system would aim to recapture America’s historic share of worldwide overseas travel, create an additional 1.3 million jobs by 2020 and produce $859 bn in cumulative additional economic output.
“It’s not often Washington sees consensus, but the call to create jobs by reforming the US visa system is coming from across the nation,” said Dow. “We greatly appreciate the support for visa reform by the USCM and US Chamber of Commerce,” said Dow.
USCM president Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa along with a group of colleagues recently released the USCM common sense jobs agenda, which includes the following recommendation: ‘Bring in a million more tourists and create over 1.3 million jobs by passing visa reform. A burdensome US visa system drives millions of potential travellers to other countries at an enormous cost to our economy. Between 2000 and 2010, the world travel market grew by more than 60 million annual travellers. Yet, in 2010 the US welcomed essentially the same number of travellers as it did in 2000.
‘The US should prioritise inbound travel through the issuance of a Presidential Directive to recapture the 17 per cent of the global long-haul travel market and match Western Europe’s current market share in Brazil, China and India by 2015.
‘The US must also reform its cumbersome visa entry process and expand its visa waiver programme to potentially qualifying nations such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Poland and Taiwan.”