WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Commerce Division on Monday will unveil a brand new technique geared toward boosting worldwide tourism hit laborious by COVID-19 and authorities journey restrictions by streamlining the entry course of and selling extra various locations.
The “Nationwide Journey and Tourism Technique” units a objective of 90 million worldwide guests by 2027 who will spend an estimated $279 billion yearly, topping pre-pandemic ranges, the division instructed Reuters.
“There are quite a lot of industries which can be properly previous COVID – journey and tourism is just not,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo stated in an interview.
The federal authorities should do extra to help the resurgence of journey and tourism to make sure the business rebuilds to be “extra resilient, sustainable and equitable,” based on the draft technique doc seen by Reuters.
In 2019, the US had 79.4 million worldwide guests, a determine that plummeted to 19.2 million in 2020 because the pandemic hit and rose to only 22.1 million in 2021.
Worldwide guests spent $239.4 billion in 2019, however simply $81 billion in 2019, the Commerce Division stated.
Earlier than COVID, tourism supported 9.5 million U.S. jobs and generated $1.9 trillion in financial output.
One of many technique’s objectives is to modernize entry procedures for guests to enter and journey inside the US.
“We have to streamline the entry course of,” Raimondo stated. “It’s cumbersome and really paper-based and we need to transfer to a extra digital course of.”
Different objectives embrace selling extra various U.S. tourism experiences past coastal states, decreasing tourism’s contributions to local weather change and constructing a sector that’s resilient to pure disasters, public well being threats and the impacts of local weather change.
One purpose tourism fell so sharply was the US lagged many different international locations in lifting COVID border restrictions that barred a lot of the world from getting into. The U.S. guidelines weren’t eased till November 2021.
The US nonetheless requires overseas nationals to be vaccinated in opposition to COVID and almost all worldwide air passengers to check adverse earlier than journey. U.S. airways say almost all different international locations they serve will not be requiring testing.
Raimondo acknowledged testing is a “barrier” to tourism and that the US is an “outlier” however didn’t forecast when these guidelines could be relaxed.
“I hear quite a bit about it from business and I’ve been expressing that to the administration,” Raimondo stated.
Reporting by David Shepardson; Modifying by Jamie Freed
