The strategy was unveiled at the annual IPW travel convention in Orlando, attended by more than 4,800 travel industry delegates from 60 countries.
Grant Harris, assistant secretary of commerce for industry and analysis, announced the strategy to delegates as he revealed the 90 million visitor target would top the pre-pandemic total of just under 80 million recorded in 2019, and would bring in an estimated spend of almost $280 billion.
The US travel and tourism sector has been hit hard by the pandemic, with international arrivals plummeting to just 19 million in 2020 and 22 million in 2021, of which the UK accounted for just over 460,000.
The first two months of this year saw a big bounce back, with international visitor numbers leaping 174% over the same period of 2021, at 4.8 million.
Chris Thompson, CEO of Brand USA, said: “It’s heading in the right direction and we look forward to it being even stronger moving forward.”
He challenged predictions that travel to the US will not recover for another three years, with an economic impact report by the World Travel and Tourism Council stating that at the current pace of recovery, international visitor spending in the US would not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2025.
“I think it’s going to be quicker than that,” said Thompson. “Our sector was the most disproportionately affected by the pandemic and it’s also going to be the quickest one out of it.”
Assistant Secretary Harris said that the US Commerce Department’s economic development administration had already begun distributing $750 million to support travel, tourism and outdoor recreation.
The new Travel and Tourism Strategy has four pillars:
• To promote the United States as a premier travel destination
• To facilitate travel to and within the United States
• To ensure diverse, inclusive and accessible travel experiences
• To foster resilient and sustainable travel and tourism
“We want to work with the travel and tourism sector to make sure that it comes back even stronger, creating jobs and fostering sustainable growth with communities across the country for years to come,” Harris said.
He also said that entry into the US would become easier because the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security were taking steps to streamline their entry processes.
Speaking prior to the US announcing an end to pre-departure testing, Harris added: “There is a lot of work ahead, but the administration must start by immediately repealing the pre-departure testing requirement for all vaccinated international air travellers and taking steps to drastically lower visa wait times,” he said.
