U.S. Works to Attract More International Visitors

Everglades National Park in Florida, a World Heritage Site, is popular with international visitors.

Washington — Commerce Secretary John Bryson and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar have announced the U.S. government’s National Tourism and Travel Strategy to promote international travel opportunities throughout the United States.

In January, President Obama announced new administrative initiatives to significantly increase travel and tourism in the United States. He charged Bryson and Salazar with leading a Task Force for Travel and Competitiveness to create the national strategy.

"I am proud of our work on the national strategy, a product of a strong private-public partnership, which will make the U.S. even more welcoming to visitors and reinforce our message to the world: The United States is open for business,” Bryson said. “These recommendations will help make the United States a more attractive travel destination for people around the globe, and I look forward to working with our partners across government and industry to turn this strategy into action.”

The Commerce Department recently released a travel and tourism forecast projecting that the U.S. can expect 4 percent to 5 percent average annual growth in tourism over the next five years, and that 65.4 million foreign travelers will visit the U.S. in 2012.

Among the new strategy’s efforts:

• To give international travelers the tools they need to plan their trips, the Department of Commerce has developed a Travel and Tourism Dashboard to provide performance indicators for international travel to the United States. It provides information about changes in visa-interview wait times in key markets, international visitor and spending data, changes in flight-processing times at key international airports, and estimated travel-demand levels.

• More than 60 percent of all overseas travelers to the United States are from countries where visas are not required. The U.S. government wants to ease travel for the 40 percent of international travelers who do require visas to enter the United States. The Obama administration is working with Congress on legislation to strengthen and expand visa-waiver eligibility to nations with low visa-refusal rates and rapidly growing economies.

• Around the world, wait times for visa interviews are generally short, and have dropped dramatically in some of the busiest travel markets where demand for visas is highest. In anticipation of the summer travel season, the Department of State is adding staff and streamlining its operations to continue to keep visa-interview wait times low.

• The Recreation.gov website has been updated and fully populated with visitor information to help people make reservations at national public lands, including national parks.

• The Department of the Interior is piloting innovative ways to use technology to provide information and interpretive content to non-English-speaking visitors. Also, the department is dedicating 30 percent of its summer-hire employees to visitor outreach and education, with a particular eye toward developing family-friendly activities and adventures in the nation’s parks and wildlife refuges.