CEO’s from the country’s leading hospitality companies launched a new initiative Wednesday aimed at boosting international tourism to the United States. America’s negative image abroad, they said, has cost the travel industry billions in lost revenue and hundreds of thousands of jobs in the years since Sept. 11.
“The more visitors we have, the stronger an economy we’ll have,” said Jonathan Tisch, chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels.
International travel to the United States, which reached an all-time high in 2000, dropped nearly 20 percent between 2000 and 2003, from 51.2 million to 41.2 million visitors. Since 1992, the U.S. share of the international travel market has dropped by 36 percent — even as the number of overall travelers increased. That percentage translates into $286 billion in lost revenue, according to estimates from the Pew Research Center.
The goal of the “Discover America Partnership” is to entice 10 million more visitors to the United States on an annual basis — increasing U.S. share of the market by more than 1 percentage point. For every one point increase in world-market share, the U.S. gains $13.4 billion in revenue, 153,000 jobs and $2 billion in tax revenue, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Locally, international tourists account for about 10 percent of all area visitors with the majority coming from Canada and the U.K. But overseas visitors spend more, accounting for about 26 percent of total tourism spending in the region. In 2005, international visitation returned to pre-9/11 levels, according to the Washington, DC Convention & Tourism Corp., but that was after the local industry saw a 28-percent drop between 2001 and 2003.
“[International tourism] did decline,” said Victoria Isley, a spokeswoman with the tourism bureau. “Last year we did make our way back to pre-9/11 levels, but we’re losing market share. We’re just catching up to where we were in 2001 rather than gaining year-over-year.”
The initiative is still in its infancy and it is unclear where funding for it will come from, said Jay Rasulo, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts and of the Washington-based Travel Industry Association of America. The initiative’s leadership committee, which includes representatives from Washington-based Marriott and several locally based tourism associations, will draft a concrete plan for the promotion by the end of2006.
