Travel News

WTTC Spotlight: Reviving U.S. Tourism post 9/11

PG: We just had the lost decade where America as a country were perceived as inhospitable and unwelcoming. The visa restrictions were ridiculous.

CN: Following 9/11, the U.S. government and U.S. people to some degree closed the door. All that mattered was safety and security. We didn’t want to take any risks. Not withstanding the negative economic consequences, we essentially closed the borders.

If you look at the stats after 9/11 for the following10 years, we lost a third of our market share for long-haul international travel.

PG: How do you get that back?

CN: You get that back by being intelligent about marketing the U.S. again to compete with other great destinations around the world and by making the visa process more seamless and easier to get through. And something you can get through more quickly. You also expand the visa waver program. There are a handful of countries across the world that meet the basic criteria. I know the State Department is working on it and we’ve been working with them. To an extent you can open the borders more fully through the visa waver programs.

PG: And you can still maintain the security protocol.

CN: We did it with South Korea a few years ago and we saw a doubling and tripling of the volume of travelers.

PG: By the way, did you know that the international airline that flies to and from the most U.S. cities is Korean Air?

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