Today, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker delivered keynote remarks at the 2016 World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Global Summit. The Summit is an international forum for public and private sector leaders to discuss issues facing the travel and tourism sector.
During her remarks, Secretary Pritzker discussed the Obama Administration’s National Travel and Tourism Strategy and the Commerce Department’s role in making progress toward national travel and tourism goals. She also discussed the industry’s impact on the U.S. economy.
After delivering her remarks, Secretary Pritzker participated in a discussion on the United States' commitment to public-private partnerships in the travel and tourism sector with President and CEO of Marriott Arne Sorenson, who serves as the Vice-Chair of the President’s Export Council (PEC) and chair of Brand USA.
Remarks As Prepared For Delivery Thank you, Nick Ross, for that warm introduction. It is great to be here in Dallas. I have been coming here for almost 40 years, and I have seen this city transform into a real capital of the arts. If you have a free moment, make sure to visit the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Garden while you are here. Their collections are truly world class.
I am honored to join so many leaders of the global travel and tourism industry, including my good friend Arne Sorenson. Arne and I have known each other for years. Our paths seem to cross all the time these days, most recently during President Obama’s historic trip to Cuba two weeks ago. As vice-chair of the President’s Export Council and chair of Brand USA, he is a source of invaluable guidance to our Department. It is because of private sector partners like Arne that this Administration has been able to ensure the United States remains the world leader in travel and tourism receipts.
Let me begin today by reminding us of the state of the travel and tourism industry 8 years ago. The global economy was in crisis. Faced with financial insecurity, people all over the world cancelled their business travel and their vacations. They just stayed home. In 2009, about 40 million fewer people globally visited another country.
Here in the United States, fewer Americans traveled abroad, and fewer visitors came to our shores. Overall international visitation to the U.S. fell 5 percent from 2008 to 2009. Furthermore, our country suffered from a global image problem, and we had no coordinated national travel and tourism branding efforts to combat this reality. By 2011, visa interview wait times were more than 100 days in certain high volume markets. Our international arrivals process created wait times as long as 4 hours at some airports.
President Obama knew this was unacceptable. He was focused on turning our economy around and saw travel and tourism as a strategic industry with tremendous potential for growth and for creating high-quality jobs. He made it a priority that travel and tourism would once again become a pillar of our economy.
In 2012, the President tasked the Department of Commerce and the Department of the Interior with developing the National Travel and Tourism Strategy. It is hard to believe that this was the first time ever the United States government had developed and implemented a thoughtful, comprehensive approach to attracting more visitors to our nation. Four years later, our efforts are paying huge dividends.
As part of this strategy, we set an ambitious goal of welcoming 100 million international visitors annually to our shores by the end of 2021. Today, I am pleased to report that we are on track to meet our goal. We estimate that 75.3 million people from around the world visited the United States in 2015, up from 55 million in 2009, a 37 percent increase. These visitors spent a record $217 billion on goods and services, supporting 1.1 million U.S. jobs and representing the United States’ number one services export.
Beyond the numbers, we are making it easier to travel to and through the United States and improving our customer service by: expanding Trusted Traveler programs like Global Entry and establishing preclearance agreements with multiple countries; lowering visa wait times from over 100 days to less than 5 in key markets such as China and Brazil; and extending visa validity with China from one to 10 years, leading to a 53 percent increase in visas in the first year alone. As I hope many of you noticed after your flights landed in the United States, we are significantly improving the arrivals process and working to provide a best in class experience.
The National Travel and Tourism Strategy is working because it was developed, in part, with extensive input from the private sector. In the United States, our government and our private sector have long collaborated on travel and tourism. But in the past, we lacked a comprehensive approach. This time, we had a shared vision and a unified set of goals.
We knew the private sector needed a single point of contact within the federal government. So we created a National Travel and Tourism Office within the Department of Commerce and appointed a senior-level executive, Kelly Craighead, as our lead. We also reinvigorated the Tourism Policy Council, a group of nine federal agencies that I chair as Secretary. This lets us take a whole-of-government approach to travel and tourism and allows me to bring the voice of business to our policy making. Put simply, business thrives when government and industry work together.
One of President Obama’s first acts when he took office was to sign a bill he had supported as a senator: the Travel Promotion Act, which created Brand USA. Led by a board of industry leaders who work with my department, other federal agencies, and nearly 500 public and private partners, this first-of-its-kind organization uses innovative marketing approaches to show the world all the United States offers as a travel destination. Brand USA is promoting the United States as never before. They are working with the Commerce Department and our federal partners in extraordinary ways.
The organization is now active in more than two dozen international markets and partners directly with destinations and attractions to inspire visitation to all 50 states, 5 territories, and the District of Columbia. Their innovative strategies include the production of a large-screen film on America’s National Parks to complement the National Park Services’ centennial year. This film will premiere this spring in theaters in all of our top markets. Brand USA is also playing a critical role in our efforts to bring more Chinese visitors to the United States as part of our U.S.-China Year of Tourism.
Along with marketing, our industry partners are essential to identifying and elevating issues that affect travel and tourism. We rely on the expertise of our Department’s Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, comprised of 32 private sector leaders, many of whom are here today. This board provides our government with advice on travel and tourism matters. For example, they gave us invaluable advice on how to provide a best in class arrivals experience.
Guided by feedback from customer services experts from Marriott, Universal, and Enterprise, we developed ways to measure our progress. To speed up the arrival process, industry worked with the Department of Homeland Security to install new kiosks and implement mobile technology. And we created Airport-Specific Action Plans that simplify and streamline the entry process at our top 17 airports while maintaining the highest standards of national security.
That last point – security – is particularly salient given recent events such as the horrific terror attacks in Brussels. Everyone in this room understands how tourism is negatively impacted when visitors do not feel safe. Hospitality and national security are not mutually exclusive. We cannot afford to let security challenges stop the great progress we have made in recent years. Providing a welcoming experience while ensuring safety and security requires all of us to work together.
Just as the private sector is making destinations and attractions more secure, our government is also evolving our policies and programs. One of the ways we are doing this in the United States is by strengthening and expanding the Visa Waiver Program. But we cannot do it alone. This program is at risk, and we need your help.
The Visa Waiver Program supports the efficient and secure visa-free movement of travelers across 38 partner countries. Indeed, travelers from Visa Waiver Program countries represent 60 percent of overseas visitors to the U.S., contributing significantly to both our economy and the economies of partner nations. But given the presence of foreign fighters in visa waiver countries, it is clear that this program will have to evolve rapidly if it is to remain effective as a security program. We need your help to serve as advocates to your governments. I ask you to push for changes that will strengthen and preserve the Visa Waiver Program, so it can continue to facilitate legitimate travel between our nations.
Partner governments must significantly advance their willingness and capabilities to collect, use, and share information to screen travelers. We must develop international systems to share data, including passenger name records, so that we can expedite processing of known and trusted travelers. We also need to ensure that our governments are taking advantage of systems already in place, such as checking documents against INTERPOL’s lost and stolen passport records. These changes are important not only to the visa waiver program but also to making legitimate travel as smooth and efficient as possible across all nations.
As I mentioned at the beginning, two weeks ago, Arne and I visited Havana with President Obama. During his remarks to the Cuban people, the President said that we are encouraging more travel between our countries because – and I quote – travel will “build bridges between our people.” Travel builds bridges. It strengthens economies. It creates deeper ties between nations. It gives citizens all over the globe a new perspective. And yes, travel can even work hand-in-hand with national security.
This Administration wants to see even more people visit our beautiful country. Working together with the private sector, we will continue to make sure the world knows that America is open for visitors and open for business. Thank you.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
