Travel Promotion Act of 2009

Floor Speech

TRAVEL PROMOTION ACT OF 2009 -- (Senate - September 08, 2009)

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, as the Senator from Nevada was discussing, all of us were home in the last month. I heard a lot about health care and I know we will be having an extensive debate and doing some very important work in this area. I heard a lot about the economy.

Well, this bill is about an industry that one out of every eight Americans is employed in--one out of every eight Americans. And if there is something we know we can do, which we know we can do in this bill to help promote more jobs in this country without costing taxpayers any money, this is the time to do it.

I first thank Senator Dorgan from North Dakota for his tireless work for years on this bill. I was listening as Senator Ensign went through all of the wonders of Nevada. And we all know there is some great tourism there. But he failed to mention Teddy Roosevelt Park in North Dakota, a place I have been visited myself. And, of course, I hope many people have come to the Mall of America in Minnesota as well as a lot of our beautiful forests and lakes.

Every State has something to be proud of when it comes to travel. Today we have the opportunity to help this industry with the Travel Promotion Act. We should not let it go to waste. As was mentioned, I am the Chair of the Commerce Subcommittee that deals with tourism. But I also come from a State that values common sense. And supporting legislation that will create jobs, generate spending, and reduce the deficit, all at no cost to the taxpayer, is the definition of common sense.

Look at the numbers. This bill is expected to bring in 1.6 million new international visitors each year--1.6 million. And you know how much they spend? They spend $4,500, on average, when they come here. You can do the math: some 1.6 million new visitors times $4,500 every single year in this country. In fact, some economists expect the bill to generate $4 billion in new spending and $321 million in new Federal tax revenue.

It is estimated to create 40,000 new jobs. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that this bill will reduce the budget deficit by $425 million over the next 10 years. Remember those numbers: $4,500 per person for every new visitor; 1.6 million new people every year coming to our country; $4 billion in new spending, 40,000 new jobs. Costs to the taxpayer: zero.

During these tough economic times, how could we not pass this bill right now when we know it would do so much good? This past summer I visited, along with my family, many areas in our State and we did tourism hearings and various events around this bill.

In Northern Minnesota, I will be honest, at first I thought: Well, they want tourism, it is a big industry in our State, but do they care about this bill. That is when I found out that they do care about this bill. Because so many visitors traditionally have come down from Canada. And some of the barriers in getting the visas processed, and the barriers at the border have affected tourism up in northern Minnesota, in places such as Grand Marais and International Falls, and Bemidji, and the Brainerd Lakes area, home of the statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.

Minnesota shares this border with Canada. I was very surprised at how much interest there was in getting this bill passed. They understand that we want to promote our country internationally, like other countries which Senator Dorgan and Senator Ensign have pointed out have done for so long. But they also want to make it easier to process these visas.

As you know, this problem started way before the economy started having
trouble. It occurred after 9/11 where, for very good reasons, there were some tighter visa requirements put in place. The problem is, we have gotten so behind that a lot of people who are living in, say, France think: Well, am I going to go to America where it is maybe going to take months to process my visa? Maybe I will go over to England or maybe I will go to Japan. And so we need to speed up that process.

We know that 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. One of my favorite examples is Duluth. It is not Las Vegas but listen to this story. Duluth is a port city that was hit hard by recessions of the 1970s and the early 1980s.

My dad is from northern Minnesota. We would go up there a lot. I could see how much that community was hurting during that time. At one point it was so bad that they put a famous billboard on the edge of town that said: Will the last one out please turn off the lights.

Well, the lights are still on in Duluth; they are as bright as ever. A lot has to do with the promotion of tourism. The city has transformed itself on the beautiful shores of Lake Superior into a popular tourist destination, welcoming nearly 4 million visitors each year with an annual economic impact of over $700 million.

We know that the tourism industry is feeling the effects of the economic downturn. On top of that, as I mentioned, the United States has seen its decline in the tourism industry in the past decade. As we see here, 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.

When a traveler decides to go somewhere else besides the United States, there is a ripple effect throughout our economy. You think about the hotels, of course; you think about the airlines. But you know who else you should be thinking about? You should be thinking about that person who is working making beds in the hotel or the waitress who is working in the restaurant where people would stop by on their drive or you think about the florist who is getting those flowers ready for the business conference. These are all jobs, those are all jobs in this economy.

Last year nearly 200,000 travel-related jobs were lost, and the Commerce Department predicts that we will lose another 247,000 jobs this year. We can do something about this. We can bring in more travelers, we can create more jobs, and we can boost our economy. That is why we need to pass the Travel Promotion Act.

First, this bill 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 tourism program.

Senator Dorgan has some amazing blowups of some of the work that you have seen in other countries. Just look. Indonesia has its own tourism program. The Bahamas entice people to go there; Scotland, Taiwan, South Korea; Australia with their kangaroo. What do we have right now? Nothing. Individual cities are going out there, places such as New

York, places such as Las Vegas. It is not so easy for some small resorts in Minnesota or North Dakota or Vermont or New Hampshire to do that.

But this is the chance where we can actually promote our country internationally. And we are in major competition for international travel, but we are not competing. In 2005, Greece spent more than $150 million on travel promotion; France spent $63 million. That is what we are up against. It is time for the United States to catch up to the rest of the world. It is time for us to play on an even playing field.

Second, the bill will establish the Office of Travel Promotion in the Department of Commerce to work with the Corporation for Travel Promotion and the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security to make sure that international visitors are processed efficiently. It is time to cut through the redtape so we can get the people who are going to these countries to come to our country.

We have always been a country that has opened our arms to people who want to come and visit. We have been proud of that, because we know that it does not only have an economic benefit, it has also a diplomatic benefit. People who visit the United States are 74 percent more likely to have a favorable opinion of our country than those who have not visited.

As we enter a new era in our international relations, travel can play an important role in building bridges between Americans and people from across the globe.

Finally, as I mentioned earlier, this legislation will not cost taxpayers a dime. I say to Senator Dorgan, it is a very good way to begin this session, to begin it by looking at something that is paid for by combination of private sector contributions and a small fee on international travelers, non-U.S. taxpayers, who are entering the United States. This is commonsense legislation.

When you think about the positive ripple effect that will happen as more international visitors visit our country, it will increase sales for businesses ranging from airlines to hotels, to those little flower shops. It will increase revenues in our local economy, and it will increase jobs.

The United States is home to some of the world's wonders. And the Travel Promotion Act will give us the tools we need to promote the United States as a premiere travel destination.

As Chair of the Commerce Subcommittee that includes tourism, I have seen how important tourism is to communities, both small and large across our country. We have the opportunity to boost travel and boost our economy. We cannot let that go to waste.

I am glad we are debating this bill today. I am looking forward to this vote and the days that we have here to focus on this. But I urge my colleagues to support this. They have been home. They know people are crying out for jobs. They know this is something at no cost to the taxpayers, bipartisan support, which will help to get us there. Let's get this done.

I yield the floor.

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