President Obama continues to implement new initiatives to significantly increase travel and tourism in the United States. The U.S. tourism and travel industry is a substantial component of U.S. GDP and employment, representing 2.7% of GDP and 7.5 million jobs in 2010 - with international travel to the United States supporting 1.2 million jobs alone.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, international travel resulted in $134 billion in U.S. exports in 2010 and is the nation's largest service export industry, with 7% of total exports and 24% of service exports. The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that every additional 65 international visitors to the United States can generate enough exports to support an additional travel and tourism-related job. According to the travel industry and Bureau of Economic Analysis, international travel is particularly important as overseas or "long-haul" travelers spend on average $4,000 on each visit. President Obama has stated: "Every year, tens of millions of tourists from all over the world come and visit America. And the more folks who visit America, the more Americans we get back to work. We need to help businesses all across the country grow and create jobs; compete and win. That's how we're going to rebuild an economy where hard work pays off, where responsibility is rewarded, and where anyone can make it if they try."
Travel and tourism is responsible for more then 1 million American jobs and it is clearly the case that more could be created over the next decade if the U.S. increases its share of the international travel market. Recent steps to liberalize the restrictions on travel to the U.S. offer important steps to bolster job creation by better promoting the U.S. as a tourism destination and improve secure visa processing. There have been and continue to be a series of recent initiatives by the Obama Administration to put Americans back to work and strengthen the U.S. economy.
The President seems to be focused on a national strategy to make the U.S. the world's top travel and tourism destination. This comes as part of a comprehensive effort to spur job creation. The number of travelers from emerging economies with growing middle classes - such as India, China, and Brazil - is projected to grow by 135%, 274%, and 50% by 2016. Nationals from these three (3) countries contributed approximately $15 billion dollars and thousands of jobs to the U.S. economy in 2010. In addition, Chinese, Indian and Brazilian tourists spend about $6,000 each trip, according to the Department of Commerce. The Department of State (DOS) has made progress in processing nonimmigrant visas from these key markets, allowing them to issue more than 7.5 million visas in the last fiscal year. This represents a 17% increase from the previous fiscal year. Improving visa processing capacity for India, China and Brazil is particularly important to spurn this growth.
One of the recent and key initiatives to increase tourism to the U.S., the DOS announced a new pilot program to waive the nonimmigrant visa interview requirement for certain visa renewals. Under the program, slated to run for two years, certain visa renewals that are more than 12 months but less than 48 months post-expiration will be eligible for renewal without a consular interview for the same visa category. The visa interview waiver is available to foreign nationals who have previously had their 10-print fingerprint scan collected; it will not be available to applicants who were previously denied a visa or who are listed in the Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS) or require a Security Advisory Opinion. Nor will the interview waiver be available to applicants who may have failed to comply with U.S. immigration laws or who are applying in a "high-threat" or "high-fraud" location. Only certain types of visas are eligible for this benefit.
Some additional initiatives have been announced that ease the travel to the U.S. The Obama Administration has been working to expand and make the Global Entry Program Permanent. Global Entry is a program within the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection that was created as a pilot in 2008 to facilitate expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the United States. Through the final rule, the Obama Administration has expanded and made the Global Entry program permanent. Due in part to innovative public-private partnerships, the Global Entry program now has more than 246,000 members, more than one million trusted travelers have Global Entry benefits, and efforts are underway to expand enrollment even further. There are currently 131 Global Entry kiosks at 20 airports and since launching, members have used Global Entry kiosks over 1.7 million times, saving CBP officers over 36,450 inspection hours-staff hours that CBP has then re-allocated to expedite regular passenger queues.
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