Travel Industry Trumpets House Vote to Renew Brand USA

July 23, 2014
Dow,Roger-USTA-110

Dow

U.S. Travel President and CEO Roger Dow issued the following statement on House passage of H.R. 4450, the Travel Promotion, Enhancement and Modernization Act of 2014, which re-authorizes Brand USA:

“The travel community heartily congratulates House leaders of both parties for embracing a policy that pays clear dividends for the U.S. economy: extending Brand USA and the outstanding work it does to attract international travelers and their dollars to American shores.

“The job-creating effects of travel activity, and the back-end return on travel promotion efforts, are both absolutely beyond questioning. It’s hard to believe that in the hyper-competitive global travel market, the U.S. was without any agency performing these functions at a national level before Brand USA came into being three years ago. It’s why we were losing market share to destinations in Asia and Europe, where tourism promotion is usually a cabinet-level public ministry.

“By moving to keep Brand USA in business, the House has paved the way for us to build on our record 70 million inbound international visitors last year. Overseas visitors to the U.S. spend nearly $4,500 on average per trip — dollars that support jobs that cannot be exported.

“Our special thanks go out to Congressmen Gus Bilirakis and Peter Welch for championing this effort from beginning to end, as well as Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton and Ranking Member Henry Waxman, and Chairman Lee Terry and Ranking Member Jan Schakowsky of the Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee for orchestrating unanimous votes at the markup stages.”

www.ustravel.org

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