E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
Maybe it'll be magic for U.S. hotels. President Barack Obama unveils a strategy aimed at boosting tourism and travel in front of Cinderella's Castle at Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Orlando.
America's hotel industry is ailing; President Barack Obama thinks he has the cure.
In a bid to reverse a downturn in international tourism, Obama this week announced a plan to streamline the visa procurement process and make other changes.
"The fact that the president recognized the importance of international tourism is an incredibly positive move," said Jim Evans, CEO of Brand USA, a public-private tourism promotion organization. "It definitely will have a very positive impact on hotel occupancies," which in turn will boost profitability and growth in tourism-related jobs. "It just has a positive effect on all metrics for hospitality."
The timing is also good. Analysts say a surge of visitors from places like China and Brazil also could help offset a potential drop in demand if Europe's economic troubles grow.
The United Nation's World Tourism Organizations predicts that the number of international travelers will hit the 1 billion mark this year, but analysts say the United States has been missing out on these visitors and their economic potential because the time-consuming, expensive process of obtaining a visa deters many would-be tourists.
Foreign tourists are universally coveted: They pay for hotel rooms, eat in restaurants, shop and pay all of the associated taxes that go along with these expenditures. When they go back to their home countries, the money they spend stays behind.
Yet even as more people travel internationally, America's share of that market dropped from 17 percent in 2000 to 11 percent in 2010. In an announcement at Walt Disney World in Orlando on Thursday, Obama unveiled his plan to reverse the decline.
"Just looking at the sheer numbers, it's going to be huge," said Kathleen Matthews, executive vice president of public affairs at Marriott International and member of the United States Travel and Tourism Advisory Board. "Reducing the wait time is going to be tremendous."
The administration's goal of reducing visa wait times to 21 days from months will open up the floodgates, she predicted. "I think within three months, you could see [an] increased flow" of foreign visitors.
Owners and managers of hotels in major gateway cities like New York, Miami, Orlando, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas will be early beneficiaries, according to David Loeb, senior hotel research analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. Much of the U.S.-bound tourism coming from emerging markets tends to be from affluent consumers, so boutique and luxury properties will fare well. Group-oriented hotels will benefit too; many Chinese like to travel in large groups, for example.
Further down the road, midtier hotels will also benefit from the surge in international visitors, predicts Robert Mandelbaum, director of research information services at PKF Hospitality Research. "I think if you open it up to more leisure travelers, more middle class ... you might see more benefit to moderately priced hotels," he said.
Brands that offer fewer frills and amenities than their full-service counterparts like Courtyard by Marriott and Hilton Garden Inn could be attractive to middle-class travelers who don't have the budget for a five-star stay but want the familiarity of a well-known brand.
Loeb says global hotel companies already have been laying the groundwork by growing their footprints abroad. Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts, for instance, has made an aggressive push into the domestic Chinese market. "It's building that loyalty and building that familiarity," Loeb said. When travelers are looking for a place to stay when visiting the U.S., they'll gravitate toward brands they already know. Marriott also is hoping to boost foreign tourist bookings by building hotels in visitors' home countries. Matthews says the company plans to build 100 of its midlevel Fairfield Inn hotels in Brazil over the next decade.
American hotel brands are getting ready for more international visitors in a variety of ways, hiring more bilingual employees, offering instruction in languages like Portuguese and Mandarin along with training in cultural differences and sensitivities. Beginning last year, Marriott International, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Hilton Worldwide started rolling out welcome programs for Chinese travelers that include perks like Chinese food and newspapers to help visitors feel at home. Some are now adding outreach efforts for the Brazilian and Indian markets.
Baird's Loeb said American hotels will be able to enjoy higher occupancies and room rates for another couple of years before the number of hotel rooms starts to catch up to the increase in demand. "We are still very much in a supply-constrained environment," he said, predicting less than a 1 percent growth in the number of hotel rooms throughout the country both this year and next.
"A lot of that has to do with the financing environment" as lenders continue to deal with the hangover of soured commercial loans. For travelers, this might translate to annoyances like higher prices and less availability, but for hotels, it's a welcome bright spot.
Leave a Comment:
Sounds good to me. Come on in and bring your money!
Actually JTM, foreigners don't want to come to America. They have plenty to see in their own regions and besides it's a long trip to get here on cramped airlplanes. Although airline fares are historically low, the taxes on tickets push them as much as 25% higher. So don't expect that lessening the wait to get a visa will increase the amount of money spent by tourists in Yankee Doodleland. They will continue to spend their tourist dollars elsewhere, probably in Asia somewhere. There's really not much to see in America anymore that you can't get elsewhere.
T. Bill, there were 59.8 million international travellers to the US in 2010, spending over $130 billion. Show some data, here's mine.
http://tinet.ita.doc.gov/outreachpages/download_data_table/Fast_Facts_2010.pdf
Not so fast Jake Reyna, your data from Fast Facts shows that 2/3 of the visitors coming to the US are Mexican drug runners and Canucks coming to do business here. Even with the USD at all time lows vis a vis the Euro and other currencies, foreigners still don't want to waste their time here. Besides, foreigners can get a better picture of American life watching Hollywood movies.
T. Bill, go to the Grand Canyon some day and then tell me they have nothing to see here, they only thing they have trouble seeing is a place to park the bus.
It depends on where you stay..Red roof in won't have people from other countries. Hyatt Mariott will.
Its the price level when people visit America they have the money to pay for premium stays and venues.
Germans have more disposable income than we do. Thats a fact and most European countries get 3 weeks off for vacation. We lazy Americans however get one week off and pay our savings/disposable income for healthcare insurance costs (not healthcare itself) and we get to stay at the Red Roof Inn..
Fine with the Visa's as long as they make sure there is a way to track these people down and they don't stay here past the visa date boot them out like they do in Europe they come and get you also that they are not on any checklist.
Yo edward-2830446,
Are you joking? Asking foreigners to come to the US to visit the Grand Canyon is the equivalent of the Libyans asking Americans to come there to visit the Sahara Desert.
I know you love your country, but please get more creative when suggesting reasons for people visiting America. If America wasn't all about free trade, there wouldn't be any visitors here.
And if any of you believes this BS, think again. Typical Dumbama BS from your Liar in Chief. He's grasping at straws for his re-election bid - keep that in mind. He will promise all the crap in the world just as he did three years ago.
Don't forget, none came about.
T.Bill: Are you serious? The US is the second most visited country in the world, following France.
http://mkt.unwto.org/sites/all/files/docpdf/unwtohighlights11enlr.pdf (top of page 6)
Europe has better and cheaper travel destinations. Mediterranean coast, especially Turkey has a lot of great hotels, beaches, history, food going for it. All for a fraction of the cost. Visited this summer. Best vacation ever.
I think dealing with the TSA will keep most tourist away from America hence why International tourists coming to the U.S. has dropped in number ever since the TSA was started.
AG99,
The tourism data you cited is good. However, the data on pg. 4 is the relevant data. It says is that tourist arrivals into the Americas (North and South America and everything in between) is only a fraction of those arrivals into Europe. Moreover, the growth of tourist arrivals into the Americas over the last 10 years is smaller than Europe and much smaller than Asia.
Sammy22 makes a good point. Europe is the big winner in getting tourists and their dollars. However, Asia is closing fast on them. The Americas is fizzling when it comes to luring tourists. Speeding up the processing of tourist visas in the US won't do much to increase arrivals or receipts in Yankee Doodleland. America will need to overhaul its tourist industry to provide better value for the international travel dollar. Additionally, the US will need to improve transportation around the country. Relying on Interstate Highways and regional air travel in the US is a joke.
US TSA and Border Agents get such bad rap abroad - the extreme paranoia we show turns off lots of foreigners.
Andrew,
Good point. America's diplomacy at our border is as bad as it gets. If the shakedown at Customs and Immigration doesn't repulse foreign tourists than certainly the patdowns by TSA will make them wish they don't have to return to the US.
Americans at the border are about as friendly as Iran is friendly to israel. Try applying for a tourist visa and see how long that takes and what hoops they make you jump through to get it. It takes MONTHS to get a visa to come to the u.s. only to be bombarded with bad food, cheap accomodations and mexican like cleanliness in hotel rooms etc.
People all over the world can now buy their own cheap chinese goods and don't have to come to america to go shopping. About the only thing that people really come for is NYC and or TV/Movie location chasing since that's what they see on their TV most of the time.
The real truth is that most people are not really impressed when they come here and eventually most if not all have the same reaction which is" it looks better and bigger on TV " ....
Oh and my advice to uscis and cbp is : show some guts and chase the real bad guys you seem to be selling guns to in mexico instead of arresting grandma and denying entry to 5 foot blondes from places like Finland at the airport you cowards. Yep. Cowards and losers most of ya.
Well said Conrad-185098. America does look better and bigger on TV. Unfortunately, Americans are reactionaries and stuck in their old ways. For years American families have been raising their children to think that their excrement don't stink. American children have been taught to sing songs like America the Beautiful. This nationalistic propaganda is shoveled into the mouths of children daily. It has become parochial. Churches in the US claim it to be the stuff of "family values". Yankee Doodle nationalism has become the opiate of the masses in America. I guess if you tell Americans long enough that dog food is superior to filet mignon, they will eventually serve it in gourmet restaurants. "Cowards and losers most of you"? I think you're on to something here, Conrad.
Yo T relax on the hate speech dude. We are all equal, I dont get where your comin from about the indoctrination @!$%#. Believe it or not most americans aren't very religious. Yes we have our faults but by no means do we think we're better than the rest of the world, I mean come on man ,, you seriously think that's how we roll? One World One Love!
Yup.. be hundreds of thousands of them..a lot of money to spend..but..there also be terrorist in the mingle of them too.
There's a potential terrorist on every street corner, in every home in America. Going to lock them all up to? Make sure you lock yourself up as well.
So what's your answer to that? Close the borders completely? Like North Korea?
What a chicken. I bet he personally knows hundreds of people affected by international terrorism. Oh wait that was on TV.
Who cares I don't live in Florida, Washington or NYC.
I suppose you could blow off the aspect of a terrorist using the easier access to visas, at least untill they affect you. Then, I suspect, you will pay attention to them as a threat. But until then, tra la la . . . all is well.
That's right. Make it easier for foreigners to come here, but make it more difficult (via the TSA) for us to go anywhere, even a couple of hundred miles.
What's wrong with this picture?
We've allowed ourselves to be scared of everything. I served in the military thinking I was protecting our personal freedoms and I now hear chicken Americans willing to photograph their genitals and send them into DHS if they ask. Let's face it we would be scared of our own shadows if there was money in it for large industry.
I personally don't like TSA shoving their fingers up my rear end evertime I want to fly but since we have so many sheep masquerading as Americans I have to deal with it.
Why would anybody get involved with the TSA to go a couple of hundred miles? I'd say the picture you are drawing is a bit 'warped'? Of course TSA is screwed-up, as with any group that refuses to allow common sense to be used, and managers all trying to make empires!!
You are a sheep because you submit.
Anyone coming to the US has to go through a similar process to get on the plane, whether you're coming from London or Katmandu. (US Immigration requires it, for any airline with landing rights here.) At least in Morocco the women get to go inside a little tent for their pat-down, by a female officer.
Yea we gave OBL exactly what he explicitly wanted.. for us to give up our freedoms, compromise our ideals, and betray our friends, all in the name of security theatre. This against a threat that never had the potential to hurt us on a national level. ..its sad.
Ed Peters....................If you fly a couple hundred miles, you meet these idiot TSA agents. Many people have to do this.
It's not WHAT they do, it's how they do it.
As a nation we serously need to work on ways in which money comes to the US in ways other than having foreigners lend it to us. We've been living on debt for decades and we're getting to the point we we just can't keep piling on more debt to maintain our lifestyle. Tourism is a great idea. Reestabilishing manufacturing in the US is another great way - it reduces imports and increases exports at the same time - a double benefit.
As a nation we also need to stop being so paranoid. 43% of all the military spending in the world is done by the US. The next closest nation, China, accounts for 7% of military spending. Paranoia is a mental illness. As a nation, we're mentally ill. TSA is another symptom of that. All the anti-immigration speak by the Republicans is more evidence that we need some serious couch time to work through our unreasonable fears.
Rugbymom in RI
You don't need to be coming here, just flying over. The TSA and HLS get the names of all who fly over, just in case the plane needs to land here for some reason.
Of course there had to be a freaking scardy cat talking the terrorism trash. Do you personally know anyone that has been affected by international terrorism? Anyone at all??? I haven't even met someone that knew someone but I am one step away from Kevin Bacon LOL. FYI - The most secure thing that happened after 9/11 was that the FAA finally mandated that airlines put in secure and locked cockpit doors. Money well spent but the other hundreds of billions of tax dollars were scared right out of the taxpayers' wallets because.....Americans are chickens and our millitary industries needed something new to scare Americans with since the Soviet Union dissolved. FYI - There are more lottery winners than dead Americans from international terrorism.
Yes, I do. My granddaughter's best friend lost her grandparents on 9/11 while flying from Boston. It had a profound effect on all the girls for a long time.
It's not JUST about terrorism, folks. It's about streamlining a process that allows foreigners to come to the US, and then potentially overstay, live here illegally, and then contribute (good or bad) to our society. Thousands of people enter the US every year with fraudulent visas, and you have to ask yourself, WHY?? If they can't get in on their own merits, maybe they shouldn't get in at all. Not only are fraudulent visas ever present, the number of overstays in climbing every day, as ICE can't keep up. How many more people do we need in the US? Especially when we can't take care of our own already....
This is total bull crap just like all of Obummer's other hair brained ideas. Get Amercians back to work and Americans will travel once again and keep the resorts and hotels plenty busy. I've been to Disneyland when it was elbow to elbow back in the day when people were working, making good money and could afford to take their families on vacation. We don't need the rest of the world to keep our economy going. We just need to get the government out of our way and let us get back to work.
And you basically have no idea about macro economics. It is the same reason you are overweight....you take in more than you put out and you are going to get fat.
Macro doesn't really apply here, and what does overweight have to do with anything? Of course what C.Wilson is saying is totally nonsensical!
Okay I'll make it real simple...I'm a bit of a novice to finance since that is what my PhD is in; but the more dollars ($) we send out of our economy by buying foreign products and spending tourists dollars overseas vs. having something of value in our country that foreigners would like to buy or have is beneficial and will produce more jobs here.
It's kind of like a big checkbook. If you have had to balance one in while you will notice that if there are more (-) vs. (+) your balance will be lower. That is less dollars (represented by $ sign) in your possession.
And the whole terrorism and illegal thing is just stupid i.e. the dumbing down of America has really become noticeable.
Good news...He should also reduce the VISA FEE which is the highest in the world and since they are under treaties VISA's for USA citizens traveling abroad are chaged the same fee by the other country.
This is great news for illegals.
Woah!!! No need to be condescending pro american!!! This good business, we need the money so come on in to this great country we call USA ladies and gentlemen of the world.
The idea that the money that they spend here will stay here is another pie in the sky deal. Finance is international, not local. If there is any surplus here, it will be sent to the IMF or the World Bank to be distributed overseas in another burst of lending to nations who have no ability to ever repay the loans.
I'm not traveling purely because of TSA, the government-sanctioned terrorist organization. Pretty soon, these international travelers will be put off by these retards groping them incessantly and treating them rudely (since they won't necessarily be conversed in English and will say the wrong thing to the idiot in TSA uniform) when they have to travel domestically, so I wouldn't be as optimistic as these guys in the article if I were them. You think your rights as American is trampled, just wait till you see what they'll do to these non-Americans they know they can do anything to them with no repercussions. These TSA agents will literally rape a little child from Brazil in front of the x-ray scanner and they'll get away with it.
"W" pi$$ed in the soup pot and now the terrorists that we, through our senseless war in Iraq, have created are waiting for the opportunity to go to Disneyland. Hope all the hawkish right wing-nuts enjoyed their tough talk and support of the preemptive war we waged while being lead by the Neo-Con regime. Now we can all live in fear while TSA feels up our wives and children. I hope it was all worth it to feel tough for a little while.
I didn't see the process for assuring that the "visitors" will be leaving once the visit is up. What I have seen though is a President who is taking all kinds of steps to undermine the rights of American Citizens to be free of illegal aliens on their land, and the cessation of immigration in all forms including Chain Migration. What will stop the illegals, Barak? What steps have you - the person responsible for the implementation of safeguards - taken for the American Citizens' protection again more alien invaders? Please answer, inquiring minds (like mine) DEMAND to know.
Yes. You see the plan. Obama is sending Mexicans to kill you and take your house and job. I salute your genius.
About the only job creation. How much do hotel jobs pay ? Minimum wage ? Soon, we will be competing with Mexico as a Third World Country , before we default on all our loans.
Every hotel has managers; every traveler is flying in a airplane and requiring the airlines to buy more, made by very skilled people; increased visitors require more hotels and construction workers to build them and every hotel needs service workers for people like you without the brains to understand how it helps our economy.
Hey! International travelers! Now that we have bombed the f&ck out of your country you don't even have the courtesy to come here and be groped at the border before giving us your money. How will you ever learn about the greatest country ever created by God Himself.? Ingrate terrorists.
We still have it easy compared to other countries, in the Phillipines you go thru 13 check points at airport, and if you go into a store of a mall you also get searched there.
I can tell by most of the comments here, most have not
traveled abroad. We have it so easy here compared to check points in all other
countries. Most people have to have 5 to 6 k just to travel; they have to
produce show money at the airport just to leave their county. They just can’t
come to visit with a couple hundred like we can to their countries; I was never
asked how much money I carried when I visited China or Philippines.
I must agree with you. Most people do not have a clue how powerfull the american passport is. Over the past few years in my travels, I have watched customs officials grill people entering countries of east europe as example. Where they will be staying, having a round trip ticket, how long a visit, other forms of I.D., asking to see a confirmation letter from a hotel...............bla bla bla bla.
My turn at the customs window, I present my passport as the officer checks I match my photo, he scans it to see if I show up on a Interpol alert as example, sometimes asked if bussiness or pleasure and that is it. The longest wait at a window I have had was about 90 seconds. The officer was tapping his fingers telling me he was sorry, but his computor was responding slow all day. When leaving, my bigesset head ache is with the airlines concerning the weight of by luggage. Many places have a little game to shall we say putting a "finger" on the scale trying to get more money.
Contrast this when coming into the usa. The last couple hours of the flight the cabin attendants pass out forms to fill out. one if you are a u.s. citizen returning, one for this kind of visa, another for that kind of visa and what to do if your final destination is as example, canada. As a u.s. citizen, I get more grief in my own country with my u.s. passport and state drivers lisence. Then if you have time to waste for your next flight, do as I do. In a suit case, I put a type of black walnut in it (and listed on customs declaration) that gets you a free trip to a baggage inspection location. Yep, we have a list of approved nuts allowed to enter. Or, buy something made from wood because we have a approved list of woods. Not liking these, buy something with fur on it. Again, a free trip to have your luggage tore apart. My favorite is no smoked sausage is allowed in. So, In germany I buy a sandwich of the same sausage. I save it for re-entry and when asked what I have, I tell them Its my meal I could not finish and walk out of customs & tsa check points with this "evil" sausage sandwich. What can I say, you need to find entertainment where you can when waiting in airports. Want to have some other fun? Buy in europe at the airport some tooth paste that is a little larger than allowed here. Make sure the quanity is listed in grams. Watch it looked at, inspected and pass right past our tsa, for the last leg of your trip. This is our tax dollars in action.
In closing, pick any large airport lets say in germany. I feel safer there, screening is much faster with fewer security personnel. Why?, you can see it everyplace, they profile!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If OBUMmer Said dog shut tasted good some people would start eating it.
Who needs a visa anyway, just come through the southern border and stay... I'm sure all of them are decent, hardworking people only seeking a better life for their anchor babies. You bunch of haters. Don't you know that immigration built this country? Let's let foreign "tourists" visit, stay a few nights in a hotel, then disappear into the woodwork. That will shorten up the lines at the visa counters for the people who want to come in. As long as they buy fake social security numbers and pay their taxes that is. Only deport them if they are not propping up our rotten system. Those are the real terrorists... heck, even Al-Quaida has to buy food, gas and smokes when they stay here. Good for the economy. What about all the construction jobs created when things go boom? And the mortuaries get business too. Poor undertakers, their lobby hasn't been well received lately at the White House, but leave it to dumbo, he'll help the downtrodden.
The choice is clear. Obama 2012
this guy is a frickin' nitwit!... if the GOP just offered anyone that had character instead of "being" a character, they could win this election
Your post in pointless.
I love the comments from various posters who think that this will allow terrorists to get in. What they haven't grasped is that these days, the biggest terrorist threat is from our own home-grown crazies.
And ironically, it's the people who think that President Obama is some sort of socialist, Kenyan, crypto-Muslim, bent on taking away their guns and sending them to FEMA concentration camps, who present the greatest danger, because they're so delusional.
Well, we hope you are right, we fear you are wrong.
Shift back away from being a security state like east germany would have a bigger effect then this. Searching of laptop information, strip searches, and a general air of intrusive security is exactly the opposite of the US that people around the world want to see. The land of the free is showing its rust.
George W Bush and the rest of his Republican cronies turned the US into the second most paranoid nation on this planet - only North Korea is worse. We're afraid of our shadow. We arm ourselves beyond reason. We spend 43% of all the world's military spending - nobody else comes close. A large portion of the electorate put preserving their right to bare arms above all else when it comes to voting. We blame everything on illegal immigrants. We're a seriously mentally ill nation.
@GCV
I agree with your post except that I like to wear long sleeve shirts.
Good idea. Too bad it took 3 years and an ABC News investigation to point it out to the administration.
Our visa system is nothing short of a joke. It does need to be reformed. I also believe BHO is one of the worst leaders we have had, However, as a broken clock, even it is correct twice per day. He is correct on this basic point......................it needs fixing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not wishing to miss a opportunity to slam him, again, no one is getting to the heart/meat of why we have something again to fix in our government. It is just the fools in the dept of homeland security. It is just so large, with so many making regulations, no one asks if there is a better way to make a mouse trap.
This is a GOOD FIRST STEP.
Here is a way that both parties would support it.
We should speed up the Visa process for foreign visitors and extend the time they can stay in America if while they are in North America they rent a home that has been foreclosed or buy a Distressed Home in the distressed Mortgage Markets of say Florida, Nevada, Arizona, California, Detroit or New York.
IT A WIN EVERYONE.
You are correct..................ever tried to find out why our neighbors to the north can only stay a total of 6 weeks per year? I did. Want to have some fun?, call our gov and ask why such a regulation. Call 3 times just to see if you get the same answer twice.