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Let's Go America! The American government is finally getting serious about boosting travel to the United States. Here’s the latest. Monday, June 11, 2012 Glenn Haussman

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The United States government is finally getting serious about tourism. That’s because politicians are suddenly realizing tourism means money (after years of tourism industry lobbying!) and tourists from other countries means lots of free money. Oh yeah, and those folks coming from other countries just happen to spend more than us domestic travelers.

For government officials the simple message of tourism equals money has finally sunk in and the days of glazed over expressions hospitality leaders grew accustomed to seeing while on Capitol Hill have vanished, replaced by friendly dizzying smiles from elected officials and their aides who are finally connecting the dots that tourism is America’s most under-utilized weapon against the country’s massive trade deficit.

Just last week the U.S. Travel Association applauded efforts by the President’s Export Council (PEC) for its commitment to increase U.S. exports through international travel to close the trade gap. Council members are promising lower visa wait times, expansion of the Visa Waiver Program and longer-term visas.

That sort of move not only makes sense, but will go a long way to improve the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of workers tethered to the travel and tourism businesses.

“In 2010, President Obama set a goal of doubling U.S. exports by 2015, and since then the U.S. travel industry has taken the lead in identifying and removing barriers to increased international travel,” said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. “Increased exports will have a substantial economic benefit. If the U.S. doubles arrivals in five years from just three key emerging high-growth markets - Brazil, China and India - we would receive a total of $24 billion in export revenues that would support 206,300 travel-related jobs.”

 “America has a tremendous opportunity to enjoy increased visitation from international tourists,” said Gary W. Loveman, President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Caesars Entertainment Corp. “We must work together to remove unnecessary impediments to their efforts to visit our destinations and, as a result, support our travel and retail industries.”

Jonathan M. Tisch, Co-Chairman of Loews Hotels and Office of the President, Loews Corporation said last week during the NYU Hospitality Investment conference travel employment has grown one-third faster than the rest of economy and made up half the jobs lost in recession.

“The key to our future prosperity is to create a rising tide of travel and tourism. More than 1 billion people will vacation abroad this year. That is nearly one of seven people in the world,” said Tisch.

Last week the Commerce Department announced travel exports were $14 billion for April 2012. And according to David Huether, SVP of Economics and Research at the U.S. Travel Association, the numbers show a resurgent travel economy.

"While other exports turned downward, travel exports held their ground in April, growing at 13.2 percent compared to last year – nearly three times faster than any other major service category and twice as fast as overall exports.

"Double digit growth for the travel industry again proves key to closing the trade gap by increasing international travel to the United States,” said Huether.

Loews’ Tisch added that travel is America’s #1 service export and is equivalent to $2 trillion in economic output every year adding $118 billion in tax revenue to the coffers at the local state and federal levels while also being responsible for 14 million jobs. He cited the growing numbers of travelers in countries such as China and Brazil which are expected to see a 135 percent and a 274 percent increase in travel during the next year.

“We are on the verge of the greatest boom market in our industry’s history. But will the U.S. be able to effectively compete?” said Tisch.

Places like Orlando are already experiencing the travel boom, and international visitation is critical for that market’s continued growth.

For 2011 final Orlando visitation numbers showed a 7.2 percent increase in travel to America’s top tourism destination increased to 55.1 million visitors, smashing the 2010 records of 51.4 million. Total domestic visitation (business & leisure) accounted for 51.3 million visitors, a 7.5 percent increase over 2010 and a record for any U.S. destination; international travel totaled 3.8 million, an increase of 3.5 percent from 2010.

Canada continues to be Orlando’s number one international market breaking the 1 million visitor mark for the first time, an increase of 5.7 percent, followed by the United Kingdom (767,000).

“This is tremendously positive news for the destination. We have seen a strong rebound in our visitation numbers over the past two years led by increases in domestic and international travel and we continue to be optimistic about the future of the destination,” said Paul Tang, Chairman of Visit Orlando.

 “Our travel and tourism industry has led the way in creating new jobs over the past two years and from these numbers you can see why,” said Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs.