The U.S. House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection recently held a hearing on the state of the U.S. travel and tourism industry. Chairman of the Subcommittee and Congressman Clifford B. Stearns of Florida called this hearing so the subcommittee could learn the status of the various sectors of the travel and tourism industry.

IAAPA President Clark Robinson began his testimony by informing the subcommittee about IAAPA and its membership. He then moved to a discussion of the status of the amusement parks and attractions industry in the large-scale context of the travel and tourism industry.

Overall, the U.S. travel and tourism industry has been adversely affected by the decrease of visitors from overseas. Robinson noted that, according to the Travel Industry Association of America, the travel and tourism industry accounts for 6 percent of total U.S. employment. Thirty percent of all post-9/11 job losses were in the travel and tourism industry. In all, 387,000 jobs were lost in that industry from September 2001 through December 2002.

Members of the parks and attractions industry have had varying experiences during that time. The post-9/11 drop in foreign visitors led to an overall attendance decrease of 6 to 8 percent in the Orlando theme park market during 2002. Regional and local parks, on the other hand, have experienced mixed results. Overall, the fundamentals of the industry are solid, but with some significant pockets of continued concern.

Certain U.S. Federal Government initiatives can help travel and tourism recover from recent events. IAAPA joins other segments of the travel and tourism industry in gratitude to Congress for appropriating $50 million for a United States Travel and Tourism Promotion Advisory Board. IAAPA believes this appropriation should be used for a comprehensive international destination marketing campaign to bring overseas travelers back to the United States. It is important that the use of these funds is timely, targeted, and focused on a limited number of markets where the return is likely to be the greatest. In addition, IAAPA supports the establishment of a Presidential Advisory Council on Travel and Tourism composed of private and public members.

Another priority that Robinson brought to the subcommittee’s attention is the implementation of visa and immigration policies that achieve U.S. security goals while still welcoming legitimate visitors. IAAPA’s members make extensive use of the J-1 summer travel/work visa program, as well as other visa programs. Changes to the State Department summer work/travel regulations that would limit the number of students coming into the country or eliminate the ability of students to build on their learning experience by participating more than once would be detrimental to the industry.

IAAPA has similar concerns regarding possible changes to visitor visas. Robinson noted that IAAPA joins others in the travel industry in encouraging the Department of Homeland Security to partner with the industry in these efforts. This testimony provided an excellent opportunity for IAAPA to discuss directly with Congress areas of concern regarding U.S. federal policy decisions. This dialogue will benefit IAAPA’s members through a greater understanding of our industry by the U.S. Congress.

Tourism at the Heart of the European Economy
On December 10, 2002, the European Commission organized its first-ever Tourism Forum. On that occasion, the European Tourism Industry Network—a platform with 50 participants drawn from international, pan-European, and European national umbrella organizations (including IAAPA and Europarks) representing a majority of sectors engaged in travel and tourism in the European Union (EU)—presented a brochure, “Tourism at the Heart of Europe’s Economy.”

The brochure states that the tourism industry suffers from traffic congestion, lack of investment in infrastructure, and imbalances in transport modes as a result of a lack of vision from EU governments.

Some of the threats to future prosperity of tourism in Europe, besides the already mentioned lack of recognition by the authorities:
• The heavy tax burden paid by tourists.
• The fact that tourism scarcely features in the development of EU transport policy.
• Insufficient coordination between the European institutions and the tourism operating sectors on various policy issues.
• Lack of crisis management regime at European level that can cope with tourism implications of (natural) disasters.

A copy of this brochure is available through the IAAPA Europe Office.