“Make it easy to buy” is Rule #1 for any sales success: and in late March DiscoverAmerica.com will do just that for international travelers interested in visiting the United States.
Described as “America’s ultimate CVB” and designed to be a one-stop shop, with extensive information on American destinations (states and cities), activities, U.S. travel policies and trip booking options, the site is co-sponsored by the Travel Industry Association and Travelocity.
“With overseas travel to the U.S. down 11 percent since 2000, DiscoverAmerica.com is one step in creating a warm welcome and invitation to come and visit,” TIA’s Greg Staley told me. “For the first time, our travel policies, destination and activity information, and booking opportunities will be housed on an official U.S. travel and tourism Web site.”
Developed through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce, the site will reach the top five inbound markets to the U.S. which account for about 75 percent or 37 million international visitors to the U.S. each year. Information will be available in English for consumers in the UK and Canada, and will be fully translated into French, German, Japanese and Spanish for consumers in Canada, Germany, Japan, and Mexico.
No question, it’s a wonderful thing: and long overdue.
But in each of those target countries - and most others around the world – there is an official national tourist office that fulfills the role that TIA and Travelocity have stepped in to fill, from our biggest market, the UK to Australia and even Tasmania, Chile and Dubai.
For many years, this most pervasive of industries was the ONLY one in which the US had a favorable balance of payments. In the United States and around the world, the tourism industry is unquestionably one of the top job creators and generators of revenue (foreign exchange, in the case of international travelers, sorely needed at this time of a soft dollar).
In Miami, for example, one in every five households benefits in some way from the tourism industry – and many of those travelers are international.
Perhaps it’s time to ask the Presidential candidates their position on encouraging travel to the US – and re-establishing an official US National Tourist Office that would support one of our country’s most important industries at Cabinet level!
What do you think? Just scroll below to post your comments!
I agree with the economic and marketing benefits of a National Tourist Office. If we're not out marketing the US and the competition is, our market share will likely decline, or at least not grow to the extent it should.
There is no question that tourism is a critically vital industry for the United States. It is without a doubt a huge economic development engine. However, our country's inability to support financially the efforts to promote it and remain competitive is costly and unfortunate. I just returned from ITB (the largets travel trade show in the world) and the lack of a strong US presence there was an embarassment. The US is the only country in the world that does not have a national tourism office that is financially supported and able to compete on a worldwide level for the extremely valuable tourist trade. We compete internationally for tourism business but we will continue to loss market share unless we commit to this industry and support it in a way that allows it to succeed. It was amazing to see at the ITB show how county's around the globe were proudly marketing and selling themselves to those who influence millions of dollars in tourism commerce. The US pavillion was clearly not up to par and seemed to be saying we don't want/need your business. We have so much to offer and the ability to realize tremendous result but only if we go and compete for it. There is no question in my mind that we currently are not able to do so and that we must change that by establishing a national tourism office that is funded and supported for success. Without it, we will lose ground and the millions of dollars it could deliver.
Peggy you nailed it! If you are not asking for business, the business will not come. The international tourists have several options around the world. If the United States wants to stay competitive in the world markets, it needs to have a National Tourism Office.
Since I posted this last week, we've had a number of calls asking how to be sure their CVB is included. I asked TIA's Greg Staley, who replied:
Thanks for helping us get the word out about www.DiscoverAmerica.com.
The site will launch with images and language-translated content for all 50 states and 6 territories. Additionally, the Canada, Mexico, UK, Germany and Japan versions will include content from 25 to 60 destinations (cities). We stretched our dollars as far as we could to include as many customer-preferred destinations on the site at its launch. Our top priority after launch is to add additional destinations.
In order to serve as the Official Travel and Tourism Website of the United States we realize the need to go deeper and broader (more content and more destinations). As a result, TIA is making participation as a new destination on the sites as affordable as possible; placing content onto the sites will be on a cost recovery basis for TIA members, with a small mark-up for non-member destinations. Interested destinations may contact Small World Publications at adsales@smallworldpublications.com
for information. We look forward to growing the site and including more content and welcome any inquiries regarding opportunities available on DiscoverAmerica.com.