Ten years after 9/11, USTA calls for new tourism strategy
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Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, has called for a rethink on US tourism strategy 10 years after the 9/11 terrorism strikes transformed international travel and air security.Dow outlined a series of forward-thinking principles that he said will strengthen security and help eliminate barriers that are discouraging travel to and within the United States.With a focus on reducing traveller wait times, improving customer service, and replacing a one-size-fits-all approach with a risk-based approach, the principles strike a balance between security and travel facilitation, he claimed.”The decade following 9/11 has seen significant changes in the way Americans, and those who visit America, travel,” said Dow. “We must continue keeping travellers safe with the highest level of security, but we must incorporate principles that improve facilitation and encourage travel.”In revealing a raft of economic data, Dow described international travel as a lost opportunity for the US travel industry in the decade following 9/11.While global long-haul travel grew 40 percent from 2000 to 2010, overseas travel to the United States during this same timeframe rose just two percent. Despite more travellers worldwide, US market share of the global travel market dropped from 17 percent in 2000 to 12.4 percent in 2010. Dow noted that if America had kept pace with the growth in global long-haul international travel in the decade after 9/11, 78 million more travellers would have visited the United States, adding a total of $606 billion to the US economy and supporting more than 467,000 additional US jobs annually. The past decade has been difficult for business travel, with total volume declining 21 percent between 2000 and 2010. This was due to the immediate impact of 9/11 and by the meetings crisis in the late 2000s. Business travel returned to growth mode in 2010, increasing nearly 4 percent, and growth is expected through 2014, although at a much slower rate ranging from 1.2 percent to 1.7 percent annually. Leisure travel has been quite resilient in the decade since 9/11, with leisure travel volume increasing 17 percent since 2000, despite a few years of negative growth. This growth underscores the importance of travel to Americans, Dow said. Slow but steady growth of about 2 percent annually is expected through 2014.With the domestic economy again appearing to decelerate, attracting more international visitors to the United States and improving the TSA security experience will play an important role in creating job opportunities for Americans, Dow explained.
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