At a press conference held this morning in Orlando, Fl. as part of IPW 2022, the largest international inbound tourism event in the United States, the president of the US Travel Association, Roger Dow, once again insisted on the need for the government to act on two key issues that, if resolved, could accelerate the recovery of foreign tourist arrivals to pre-pandemic levels: the elimination of vaccination tests and the acceleration of visa processing times.
On the first point, Dow presented data from a survey conducted in six global markets indicating that 54% of passengers said that the tests add to their uncertainty about canceling their trip, so 71% end up prioritizing destinations that do not have tedious entry requirements.
According to the US Travel Association, eliminating testing could add 5.4 million international tourists in 2022, who in turn would spend USD 9 billion.
On the visa front, Roger Dow presented impressive data on the delay times that are now occurring in key US markets. In Mexico, the second largest issuer of tourists, there is an average delay of 538 days; in Brazil, the seventh largest market, 262 days; in Argentina, the fifteenth largest market, 529 days; while the global average is 419 days.
Dow informed that they have sent a letter to the White House making some recommendations on how to address this problem, which they called «totally unacceptable».
These include developing a pilot program to conduct videoconference interviews for low-risk applicants who are renewing or have urgent issues; prioritizing resources at embassies and consulates that have a high demand for visas; temporarily extending all visas for one year or waiving interview requirements for those up for renewal, especially those in the United States; consider allowing low-risk visa holders, such as temporary workers or students already in the U.S., to renew their visas on U.S. soil; develop new ways to streamline visa processing for medium to large travel groups; and postpone and reconsider the proposal to increase the nonimmigrant visa fee, at least until international tourism has recovered.
According to data obtained by Aviacionline through Cirium, the supply of international seats in the United States during June is 16.6% below the same month of 2019, and -24.9% in terms of ASK (this is heavily influenced by the fall of markets in Asia).
Regarding the United States – Latin America/Caribbean market, seat supply is 93% recovered, while with Europe it is already at 85% levels, with Spain several steps higher, showing 92% recovery levels.
In 2019 the United States received 79.4 million foreign tourists, who represented revenues of USD 239 billion to the U.S. economy. In 2021, barely 28% of that total was recovered, with only twenty-two million passengers, which translated into revenues of USD 80 billion.
Prior to the pandemic, the travel industry accounted for 9.5% of total U.S. exports.
