Los Angeles, California – The US has “serious problems” with international travel to Japan that must be resolved to regain competitiveness.
That's the assessment of the U.S. Travel Association and its leader, Chairman and CEO Jeff Freeman.
At a press conference today in Los Angeles, California, where a travel industry convention is being held, Freeman offered his sobering thoughts on the issues plaguing inbound travel to the United States.
Freeman told the media gathered at the IPW 2024 convention, “The United States remains the most visited country in the world, with 79 million people visiting from overseas at the end of 2019, and 67 million people visiting from abroad by 2023. “I visited from there,” he said. That's 84 percent of pre-pandemic levels. ”
“If you look at travel as an export, before the pandemic there was $12 billion in travel. [person] Travel trade surplus.At the end of last year, there was about $50 billion. [person] It’s a travel trade deficit,” Freeman added.
Freeman said there are several challenges currently facing the United States in attracting international tourists and significantly increasing the number of visitors to Japan. Some of these challenges are within the ability of the country to solve, while others are not.
For example, there's not much you can do about the strength of the US dollar. Therefore, visiting this country from other parts of the world is very expensive. Similarly, there is not much U.S. authorities can do about the current ban on flying over Russian airspace, which is a major hurdle for planes coming to Russia from China.
But visa wait times continue to be a major hurdle for international travelers, Freeman said, and it's an issue that U.S. authorities can and should solve.
“In terms of visas, I just checked this morning and if you're a Colombian and you want to come to the United States, you have a waiting period of over 600 days before you can get an interview at a U.S. consulate,” Freeman said. “If you're in Mexico, the waiting time is more than 800 days.”
In contrast, for visitors from India, the wait time for a visa interview has recently been reduced to a somewhat more reasonable 150-200 days. Similarly, wait times for visitors from Brazil have significantly reduced from once 500 days to just 21 days, according to the U.S. Travel Association.
“It shows us that it's possible. If the State Department gets inventive and creative and puts resources in the right places, we can solve this problem,” Freeman explained. did. “But it's been going on for too long. It needs to be fixed now.”
30 day visa challenge
Freeman said the U.S. Travel Association filed the challenge against the Biden administration in a bold move to push the needle and resolve the visa issue. The organization is calling on governments to set a goal of processing all visas at consulates around the world within 30 days.
If the United States fails to heed that call, Freeman predicts the country will continue to lose market share to other destinations. In fact, Freeman said, officials from other countries are actively reviewing the source markets with the longest wait times for U.S. visas and rolling out their own welcome mats to lure such visitors away from the country. It is said that there is
“Other countries around the world are taking steps to attract travelers from the United States, whether it's Canada, the United Kingdom, Turkey,” Freeman said. “They're looking at countries with long visa wait times and allowing those travelers into the country.” [to their countries] Visa is free. ”
Freeman elaborated on this point in a one-on-one interview with TravelPulse after the press conference.
He said Canada recently added about 14 countries to its list of exit markets that travelers can visit without a visa. All 14 countries that Canada has added to the visa-free list are countries whose citizens currently require a visa to enter the United States, and are countries that currently have disproportionately long wait times for U.S. visas.
Similarly, the UK recently made significant changes waiving visa requirements for Brazilians seeking to visit the country. Freeman told Travel Pulse that until recently, Brazil was a country where citizens had excessive wait times (500 days) to obtain U.S. visa appointments.
“oh yeah, [other countries] We know what’s going on and we’re working strategically,” Freeman said. “There is real coordination at the top of both governments, and the United States does not have that.”
“These are the measures that are going to take away travelers from the United States,” Freeman said.
Keven McAleenan, Patty Cogswell, and U.S. Travel Association President Jeff Freeman speak about inbound tourism at IPW 2024 press conference
To address some of the challenges surrounding inbound tourism in the United States, the U.S. Travel Association earlier this year assembled a committee of experts focused on making travel to the United States seamless and safe.
This committee is comprised of high-level experts, including former TSA administrators and individuals who created the TSA PreCheck program. Many officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the State Department are also participating. Freeman told Travel Pulse that the committee includes an expert who was the former director of London's Heathrow Airport.
The committee's focus is to recommend ideas that the U.S. government can adopt to improve the country's competitiveness and “ensure that the United States captures its share of international travel.”
Members of the commission, two of whom were at today's press conference to talk about the challenges plaguing the inbound travel process, are currently working to identify how the country can respond. For this purpose, he flies around the country assessing the situation at airports from coast to coast. More competitive.
Freeman said in an interview with Travel Pulse that he expects the commission to make some initial recommendations on steps to be taken to improve inbound travel by the second half of this year.
“In our experience, this is what is needed,” Freeman said. “If you want to bring about change in the federal government, a lot of times you have to put the change on a silver platter and hand it to the federal government. , they will adopt it.”
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