Travel Promotion Act of 2009--Motion to Proceed--Resumed

Floor Speech

TRAVEL PROMOTION ACT OF 2009--MOTION TO PROCEED--Resumed -- (Senate - June 16, 2009)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, during these tough economic times, American families expect and deserve that we will do everything we can to get the economy moving again. Of course, that involves investing in our country, investing in our infrastructure. It involves getting our financial system in order. It involves getting credit moving again. But we should not forget that one out of eight Americans is employed in the travel industry.

I chair the subcommittee of Commerce, that deals with tourism issues, and I cosponsored the bipartisan legislation to bring new visitors and new spending and new jobs to the United States. I thank Senator Byron Dorgan for his leadership and hard work on this bill, and I also thank Senator Ensign for his leadership.

I spoke last week, when we first started talking about this bill, about the importance of the tourism and travel industry to our economy. Tourism creates good jobs that cannot be outsourced. It increases sales for local businesses, and it brings in tax revenue for local and State economies.

As I said, one out of every eight Americans is employed by our travel economy. Each year, travel and tourism contribute approximately $1.3 trillion to the American economy. The travel economy contributes $115 billion in tax revenues to State, local, and Federal Governments, and last year travel and tourism exports--which means the people coming into the U.S. to enjoy our beautiful country--accounted for 8 percent of all U.S. exports. In fact, tourism is one of the few economic sectors where we enjoy a substantial trade surplus.

But things are not going as well as they could or they should, especially when it comes to bringing international travel to the United States. I know you know that, Madam President, coming from the State of New York. I see the Senator from Michigan. I have seen their recent ad campaign on ``Enjoying Pure Michigan.'' But we need to bring more people to this country.

What does this mean? What is the problem? As you can see, while more people around the world are traveling--there were 48 million more global overseas travelers in 2008 than there were in 2000--633,000 fewer visited the United States. That is unfortunate. You can see more people around the world are traveling, but fewer are coming to our country. What does that really mean?

Since 2000, the U.S. share of the world travel market has decreased by nearly 20 percent, costing us hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue. You can see what happened here in our country. This chart is in millions of dollars--$26 million brought in in 2000, only $25.3 million in 2008; while for the rest of the world, $124 million for the rest of the world in 2000--up to $173 million in 2008.

When a traveler decides to visit another country, to visit someplace besides the United States, there is a ripple effect across our economy. Fewer airline tickets are sold, fewer cars are rented, hotels and lodges rent fewer rooms, tourist attractions have fewer visitors, local businesses miss out on sales and opportunities, workers lose their jobs, and it goes on and on.

The decline in international travel, combined with the current economic downturn, is hitting our country's travel industry hard. Last year, nearly 200,000 travel-related jobs were lost, and the Commerce Department predicts we will lose another 247,00 jobs this year. We are not talking about the CEOs of the airline companies. These are hard-working Americans--the people who work in the hotel rooms, the cooks, the janitors, the shop workers, the people who own little flower stores next to the hotels. They are the ones making the beds. They are the ones making the meals. These are the people we should think about when we talk about the bill before the Senate today.

The question before us today is how can we bring international visitors to the United States because--do you know how much they each spend when they come? Something like $4,500 when they come to our country. That is $4,500 that provides jobs for those janitors and maids and shop owners.

We have just as much, if not more, to offer travelers than anyplace else. We have stunning national landmarks, such as the Grand Canyon--and the Statue of Liberty in your home State of New York, Madam President--centers of fun and entertainment from Las Vegas to Disney World, scenic country towns and the bright lights of the big cities and those quiet moments in those little towns in my home State of Minnesota. But we need to do a better job of promoting the United States as a premier travel destination. We have to face it. We are in a competition for international travelers, but we are not competing.

Look at what is going on around the world when it comes to tourism. Here are some examples: Yemen has their own tourism promotion for their country. Of course, the Bahamas--I think many of us have seen those on TV. I certainly have. You see Tourism Australia. I have seen a few of those ads. South Africa, Taiwan, Scotland, India--these countries are promoting themselves internationally to bring in other visitors.

What do we have right now in our country? We do not have a centralized promotion of our country for tourism. Countries around the world make tourism a national priority because they see it brings jobs to their country. They spend millions of dollars on promotion and programs and senior officials to coordinate national tourism policy. For example, Vietnam, Egypt, New Zealand, Lebanon, and Jamaica have ministries of tourism. Germany has a National Tourist Board, and Australia has a ``Tourism Australia'' program. In 2005, Greece spent more than $150 million on travel promotion; France spent $63 million. That is what we are up against.

The Travel Promotion Act would level the playing field so we can compete with the rest of the world and recapture that lost market share. It will create the Corporation for Travel Promotion, a public-private partnership to promote the United States as an international travel destination and finally establish a coordinated national travel program.

Under the direction of a board of directors made up of representatives from the States, the Federal Government, and the travel industry, the corporation would be in charge of a national travel promotion, a program with goals to encourage travel to the United States, to communicate our country's travel policies, and to promote international exposure for parts of America that do not have the resources to promote themselves.

As I mentioned earlier, our loss in the share of the world travel market is not a new phenomenon. It actually started after September 11, where, for good reasons, security measures were put into place, but some of those good reasons have turned into very difficult times for tourists to come over, and that is what needs to be fixed. That is why part of this bill would make it easier for tourists to get their visas, make it easier for them to visit the country. A lot of times it is just expediting the checks that need to be made, making sure they can get their visas, just as they can get one to go to Canada or Mexico or other countries.

The bill will establish the Office of Travel Promotion in the Department of Commerce to work with the Corporation for Travel Promotion and secretaries of state and homeland security to make sure that international visitors are processed efficiently.

America is a country that wraps its arms around those who come to visit us, and this bill will make sure international visitors know they are welcome and wanted. The Travel Promotion Act is about more than just encouraging travel. It is also about building our economy. This bill is expected to bring in 1.6 million new international visitors each year. Since international visitors, as I noted, spend an average of $4,500 per person while they are here, this is a huge boost to our economy. That money from overseas coming into our economy, into our towns and cities, into our small businesses is new money. If they are not going to come and spend it here, they are going to go to one of these countries--to the Bahamas, South Africa, Australia. That is new money coming into our country.

The U.S. Travel Association estimates this bill will create 40,000 new jobs, and economists at Oxford Economics expect the bill to generate $4 billion in new spending and $321 million in new tax revenue.

Just as important as how much it will generate is how much it will cost, which is zero for American taxpayers. This bill comes at no cost to the taxpayer. It will be paid for by a combination of private sector contributions and a $10 fee on international travelers entering the United States of America--zero cost, big benefit.

The Congressional Budget Office just released a report that estimates that this bill will reduce budget deficits by $425 million over the next 10 years--that is the bill pending before this body today. The math is undeniable. For no cost to the taxpayer, we can boost travel, boost the economy, and reduce the deficit. That is why this bill has such strong bipartisan support in the Senate. It also has the support of numerous organizations such as the U.S. Travel Association, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

It has many newspaper endorsements. As you can see, newspapers in every part of the country support this legislation. I will read just a few. The Sacramento Bee:

The country needs to reclaim its status as a global magnet for visitors, even in the post 9/11 climate, and Congress can help by passing the Travel Promotion Act by the end of this year.

Dallas Morning News, September 6:

The Travel Promotion act is a sensible first step toward putting the welcome mat back on America's doorstep.

Orlando Sentinel:

Our position, charging international travelers $10 to pay for promotion of travel to bring in all that money makes sense.

Detroit Free Press, September 25, 2008:

Doesn't it make sense to encourage, at no cost to taxpayers, foreign visitors to come here and leave some money? There's no good reason not to pass this bill.

Finally, I leave the best to last, Duluth News Tribune, Duluth, MN, May 18, 2009:

Ideas to bolster economic recovery without plunging the nation any deeper into debt would be welcomed by taxpayers from coast to coast.

I know firsthand how important tourism is for the city of Duluth. It has had some very difficult economic times in the seventies and eighties. At one point it was so bad there was a time there was a billboard that someone put outside Duluth that said, ``The last one to leave, please turn off the lights.''

That is what they were dealing with. They bolstered their economy through tourism.

I was just up there. I did a field hearing there and they have actually seen an increase in their convention and business travel this year. Maybe a few people are going to places such as Duluth. Businesses are cutting back a little. But the important part of this is that you have one town just like so many across the country that has benefited from tourism.

This is what we are talking about across the country. I wonder why we didn't pass this earlier, why we haven't been able to get this through. I can't answer this question. It makes no sense to me. Sometimes people don't want to talk about tourism because they don't think it is important, but when one out of eight Americans is employed in this business it is important.

I urge my colleagues to support it. I hope we can get it through intact. I hope we will have a minimum number of amendments and we can simply do something good in a bipartisan way that will help increase jobs in America where one out of eight people is employed.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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