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| Photo: whitehouse.gov |
President Obama signed into law the first-ever national travel promotion and communications program to attract more international travelers to the United States. The historic moment, commemorated during a White House signing ceremony, is a major step in addressing America’s decline in attracting overseas visitors to the United States during the past decade.
The Act is in response to worrisome evidence that the United States is losing ground to other countries in the global travel market. The United States welcomed 2.4 million fewer overseas visitors in 2009 than in 2000, and the failure to simply keep pace with the growth in international long-haul travel since 2000 has cost the U.S. economy an estimated $509 billion in total spending and $32 billion in direct tax receipts, according to the U.S. Travel Association. The Travel Promotion Act will counteract this trend by creating a campaign to promote the United States as a premier destination and explain changing travel security policies to foreign visitors.
Source: U.S. Travel
