Forbes: Welcome to America

This article originally appeared in Forbes on April 22, 2013. A copy of the article can be found here.

By: Gary Shapiro

Did you know that about 100 million international travelers won’t be including the United States in their vacation plans any time soon? In the past five years, overseas travelers have heard negative things about visiting our nation. Forty-three percent of travelers to the United States now recommend that their friends and families look elsewhere for vacation spots, according to a recent survey by the U.S. Travel Association.

The message is simple: Don’t bother traveling to the United States – it’s too much of a hassle. Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, says this will take a hefty bite out of the U.S. economy, resulting in the loss of 518,000 jobs and $95 billion in total output.

To reverse this trend, last month Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev) and Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) re-introduced the bipartisan JOLT Act – Jobs Originated through Launching Travel – which would cut red tape and create a more reasonable process for entering the U.S., opening our doors to international travelers and giving our economy a needed boost.

Following 9/11, security measures have made visiting the United States an incredibly frustrating process. Visitors who apply for a visa must pay a non-refundable processing fee of at least $160, and must endure long wait periods for their application to go through. They must also sit through an in-person interview with a representative from the State Department, meaning people who want to enjoy a relaxing vacation have to clear numerous hurdles if they want to visit Miami’s beaches, Colorado’s mountains or CES® in Las Vegas.

Even visitors allowed to travel to the U.S. without a visa – those from countries in our Visa Waiver Program (VWP) – are staying away, due to long customs lines in U.S. airports.

The JOLT Act tackles these problems head on as it:

• Modernizes and expands the Visa Waiver Program;
• Admits more travelers from countries allied with the U.S., including Israel, Poland, Brazil and Chile;
• Shortens wait times for visa applications, by allowing applicants to pay for expedited interviews;
• Requires the State Department to publish times of low demand for visa applications, so people can apply when waiting periods are shortest;
• Establishes a goal of interviewing 90 percent of non-immigrant visa applicants within a 10-business day period;
• Uses videoconferencing to allow applicants who cannot easily reach a U.S. consulate to conduct their interview without the burden of additional travel; and
• Expands the Global Entry program by allowing pre-approved, low-risk travelers to skip long lines at Customs.

What’s more, the JOLT Act would cut government spending and add tax revenue. It’s great for the U.S. economy. Dow says just the expansion of the Visa Waiver Program could increase the number of annual visits to the United States by 4 million, adding $45 billion and 300,000 jobs to the U.S. economy. International travel is America’s largest service-export industry, generating $168.1 billion in 2012, according to the International Trade Administration. On average, visitors to the U.S. spend $4,000 per visit.

Our economy continues to recover at a snail’s pace, and unemployment remains high. Tourism and international travel is a crucial sector for reviving our economy, and the JOLT Act provides a needed boost. We also stand to gain from international business travelers, who are more likely to invest in U.S. businesses if they can travel here to attend meetings and conferences. More than 35,000 people from 170 countries jumped through the hoops to attend the 2013 International CES®, but the impact of a foreign presence at North America’s largest trade show could be unimaginably greater if the hurdles were eliminated altogether.

Whether visitors come to the United States for business, for education or for pleasure, the steps they have to take to get here should not be prohibitive. We want to encourage people to visit, spend and invest, and the JOLT Act makes that possible. It’s a simple win-win, both for potential visitors and for Americans.