U.S. Travel Association Leads Efforts in Push for U.S. Visa Reform

On May 12, 2011, the U.S. Travel Industry- under the leadership of the U.S. Travel Association, the leading lobby group for the travel industry- laid out a plan that consists of increasing industry staffing, reducing visa interview wait times and expanding the Visa Waiver Program to help create American jobs and increase revenue.

According to http://www.smartervisapolicy.org/, the site established by the U.S. Travel Association and dedicated to promoting the plan Ready for Takeoff, which "outlines a comprehensive plan to grow our share of the travel market by 98 million visitors, expand U.S. exports by $390 billion, create 1.3 million new jobs and increase economic output by $859 billion." According to the site, this "all begins by improving our visa process."

The four key components of Ready for Takeoff includes the following essential steps (in no particularly discernable order):

•America must align U.S. State Department resources with market demands;
•America must reduce visa interview wait times to 10 days or fewer;
•The U.S. State Department must improve planning, measurement and transparency; and
•America must expand the Visa Waiver Program.

The U.S. Travel Association's push for many of these provisions and updates to current visa regulations has been joined by efforts from the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and even Vice President Joe Biden.

USCM released a statement that echoed support for the above sentiments and captures the essence of the argument for visa reform.

“Bring in a million more tourists and create over 1.3 million jobs by passing visa reform. A burdensome U.S. visa system drives millions of potential travelers to other countries at an enormous cost to our economy. Between 2000 and 2010, the world travel market grew by more than 60 million annual travelers. Yet, in 2010 the U.S. welcomed essentially the same number of travelers as it did in 2000. Legislation has been introduced in the House and Senate to reform the Visa Waiver Program. The Department of Homeland Security is working on a new method of collecting visa overstay data, which is necessary to advance the legislation. Increasing travel to the U.S. could inject over $859 billion into the economy, and create over 1.3 million new American jobs. To increase economic activity and create jobs, the U.S. should prioritize inbound travel through the issuance of a Presidential Directive to recapture the 17 percent of the global long-haul travel market and match Western Europe’s current market share in Brazil, China, and India by 2015. The U.S. must also reform its cumbersome visa entry process; and expand its Visa Waiver Program to potentially qualifying nations as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Poland, and Taiwan.”

During a recent trip to China, Vice President Biden expressed his awareness of the difficulties undergone by Chinese business people when trying to arange a trip to the United States and of the urgency in resolving such issues. (As if the United States isn't already facing enough hardship in securing overseas business after S&P's gracious credit downgrade last month.)

With President Obama's much anticipated Jobs speech coming tonight, it will be interesting to see if there are any mentions of the difficulties surrounding the U.S. Visa process. Many people cringe when they think of the U.S. expanding visa possibilities to citizens of other countries, but the fact is the United States is not generally seen as a hot-spot for foreign travelers. If the United States is able to generate an increase in overseas visitors and business people, it could provide a much needed boost to the lagging U.S. economy in a too often under-utilized revenue-generating industry.