Is US government doing enough to promote international tourism?

The US government at the highest level wants Americans to think they are doing all they can to promote international tourism.
 

This week, the White House sought to reassure travel industry leaders that the United States cares about tourism and hopes to push the industry as the country recovers from a recession.
 

Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Barack Obama, told executives at the Global Travel & Tourism Summit that the US wants to help make travel easy and safe, attract international visitors and spur business.
 

"All of these investments stem from a single belief: If it’s easier to travel through the United States, more people will choose to do so," Jarrett said.
 

That is exactly what the United States Travel Association is trying to promote. They want the federal government to ease travel restrictions on visas and make other moves to attract more international visitors.
 

After 9-11, the United States instituted requirements that every visa applicant be interviewed in person by a consular level officer.
 

USTA also proposed hiring 400 more consular interviewers, allowing interviews to be done by videoconference, and exploring visa waivers with other countries.
 

There are skeptics who say the US government is only moving slowly towards the goal of international tourism. But Jarrett says the government is making specific efforts to process tourist visas for international travelers. She said the State Department hired 700 new officers in 2010 and created about 100 consular positions overseas since 2007.
 

Three countries that are particularly critical to any such efforts: China, Brazil and India, which are all poised to fuel an explosion in international tourism in the coming years, according to industry sources.
 

“With an estimated two billion new middle class consumers expected to come into the markets from those emerging powerhouses over the next two decades, the travel industry sees a potential gold rush ahead,” reports AFP
 

China’s outbound market is growing by 20 percent a year, according to David Scowsill, CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council, an industry promotion group.
 

"And if you look ahead, (with about) 1.6 billion coming out of China and India, they are a huge amount of people coming in with money to burn," he said.
 

In a USTA report, leaders said the United States could help to double exports within five years and create 1.3 million new jobs by 2020 by increasing the number of foreign visitors to the country.
 

Some areas such as Las Vegas are hoping improved international tourism will ease slow trade show attendance.
 

"Some of the most important markets where we want to sell products – like India, China, Pakistan and the Philippines – they are the ones that are having the most difficult time getting US visas." Steven Hacker, President of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events, told 13 Action News in Vegas.
 

He said about 116,000 people were unable to attend US trade shows last year because they could not obtain a visa.
 

"If we ran a business like we’ve been running visas, we’d be out of business," Hacker said.
 

By David Wilkening