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US Travel chief urges early action to secure Brand USA future

The chief executive of the US Travel Association has urged the industry to push through reauthorisation of the country’s marketing body at the earliest opportunity.

Brand USA was created by the Travel Promotion Act in 2010, and is required to be reauthorised by the US government every five years.

It was reauthorised a year early in 2015 – however, the future of the organisation was cast into doubt after it was omitted from an initial budget from the Trump administration last year.

Speaking at the IPW conference in Denver, Roger Dow said: “The funding mechanism for Brand USA (the Esta fee on travellers from visa waiver countries) has been approved through to 2027 by Congress, which is huge.

“But under the proposals from the Trump administration, that funding is due to be put into a central pot, and we know that’s not good.”

He added: “I always say the budget is put together by a bunch of 10-year-olds and they put everything in a box and nobody knows what’s in there till it all comes out. We call (the proposal to divert Esta funds) ‘the mistake’ and we have lots of support to correct that mistake.

“Brand USA is authorised until 2020 and some people may look at the decision to approve the funding to 2027 and think everything’s safe, but it’s important to get the reauthorisation done as early as possible – if not this year then next year.”

Recent figures from analyst Oxford Economics, commissioned by Brand USA, said the organisation’s marketing efforts since 2013 had resulted in 5.4 million incremental visitors to the US, supported 51,580 jobs annually and had provided an economic impact of $38 billion.

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