CEOs from the nation’s largest travel companies met with senior Obama administration officials in the White House last week to express support for U.S. President Obama’s national travel and tourism strategy and urged policies and initiatives that would further economic growth and job creation in the nation’s US$1.9 trillion travel industry, which supports 14.4 million U.S. jobs.

“President Obama’s call for a national travel and tourism strategy was one of the most significant developments for our industry in the past decade,” said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. “The travel industry has the ability—and stands ready—to quickly hire many of the unemployed workers in our country, but to do that we must have policies in place that increase travel to and within the United States. This Administration and most in Congress understand that, and we look forward to bipartisan support for legislation that supports America’s travel industry.”

In January, Obama issued an executive order that called for the expansion of the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) and the establishment of visa and international visitor processing goals. Those goals include an increase of non-immigrant visa processing capacity by China and Brazil by 40 percent over the coming year and ensuring that 80 percent of non-immigrant visa applicants are interviewed within three weeks of receipt of application.

“We strongly urge the Administration to work with the House and Senate leadership to schedule a vote on the bipartisan JOLT Act, which expands the Visa Waiver Program and codifies a two-week standard for processing non-immigrant visas,” Dow said.

VWP countries are the largest source of inbound travel to the U.S. In 2011, more than 18 million visitors to the U.S.—nearly two-thirds of all overseas visitors—arrived through the VWP. While here, they spent $69 billion, supported 525,000 American jobs and generated $13 billion in payroll and $11 billion in government tax revenues. The number of travelers from emerging economies with growing middle classes—such as China, Brazil and India—is projected to grow by 135 percent, 274 percent and 50 percent respectively by 2016 when compared to 2010.

The CEOs at the White House meeting represent billion-dollar corporations in the travel industry. They were in Washington for the U.S. Travel Association’s CEO Roundtable, a bi-annual meeting to discuss industry issues and national policy initiatives.

The following is a dispatch from Rob Cotter, a frequent One+ contributor, who is attending the IT&CMA conference in Bangkok, Thailand.

Having endured political unrest in 2007 and 2009, Thailand made significant efforts at all levels in an attempt to sustain its MICE industry and make sure a framework was in place for the speediest return to normal operations. One such measure was the waiver of visa fees for visitors from India between 2009 and March of this year, increasing their competitive edge with the direct consequence of India topping the list of meeting and incentive visitors to Thailand in 2010. Their particular focus being medical science and technology events as well as the broader science industry and education, with record numbers of Indian visitors registered, they even surpassed China to become Thailandʼs biggest inbound source country. 

Delegates at this yearʼs IT&CMA were therefore surprised to learn that the reinstated visa fee for India had been hiked by almost 50 percent from October 1, taking it from an original $28 to $40, closer to $45 when all processing fees have been included.

“I am 100 percent sure that the MICE market from India will be hit,” said Anshuman Mitra, director of Starlite DMC in New Delhi. “The visa fee is crucial in terms of overall costs, since MICE groups tend to be quite large compared to leisure, and over the last few years, it was the biggest advantage Thailand had to attract markets like India.”

Highlighting what may be an outcome of this decision, Mitra also added that “other governments like Singapore, Malaysia and Macau are not raising visa fees. In fact, some of them are actually paying us subsidies to bring Indian MICE into their destinations.” 

It will be interesting to see if the visa fee increase is a wise move.

—Rob Cotter

The U.S. welcomed 2.4 million fewer overseas visitors in 2009 than in 2000, and the failure to keep pace with the growth in international long-haul travel since 2000 left an estimated US$509 billion in spending and $32 billion in tax receipts on the table, according to a U.S. Travel Association analysis done in conjunction with Oxford Economics. Roger Dow of the USTA explains what needs to change.

Dow isn't exaggerating the impact that U.S. visa policy has on international visitors. Without visa barriers, total business sales at these exhibitions would increase by $2.6 billion, according to a just-released research study by the Center for Exhibition Industry Research and Oxford Economics. Other findings: 

• Business sales to U.S. companies would increase $2.4 billion from the incremental attendance of international exhibitors and attendees 

• The $2.4 billion sales increase to U.S. companies includes $1.5 billion in increased business-to-business trade, $540 million in registration fees and exhibition space spending and a $295 million boost to visitor spending 

• The new $2.4 billion in sales would sustain more than 17,500 jobs directly and 43,000 jobs overall and generate three-quarters of a billion dollars in state and federal taxes