President Obama Promotes Tourism

January 19th – US President, Barack Obama, has outlined a new strategy to promote tourism to the United States.

The strategy was announced during Obama’s speech at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.  It includes the creation of an interagency task force to help promote iconic American destinations such as national parks, in collaboration with the Corporation for Travel Promotion. The corporation has just launched its own campaign to promote US tourism, the Brand USA campaign.

Travel industry groups have been quick to praise the new initiatives, among them the U.S. Travel Association, the National Retail Federation and American Airlines.

Key to the strategy is a long-awaited visa reform. The U.S. Travel Association has been arguing that such measures would boost the economy and create jobs.

The Departments of State and Homeland Security have been given the task of increasing non-immigrant visa processing capacity from emerging markets China and Brazil by 40 percent this year. This should ensure that 80 percent of non-immigrant visa applicants within three weeks of receipt. Efforts are also being made to expand the Visa Waiver Program.

A pilot program that should speed up the whole application process has also been announced by the two departments; this includes the option to waive interviews for low-risk applicants. Other measures include an expansion of the Global Entry program and recommending Taiwan for the Visa Waiver Program.