BRAND USA is gunning for more international arrivals through its inaugural appearance at this year’s ITB Asia and increased trade support in the region.
Brand USA vice president for global partnership and development, Jay Gray, said: “Between 2000 and 2010, international outbound travel across the world increased immensely, but US market share of that actually decreased five percentage points in what we called the ‘lost decade’.”
Gray attributed this to the destination’s lack of marketing efforts, while other countries were out there marketing themselves as tourism destinations.
But all hope is not lost as outbound departures to the US are on the rise in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
The US is aiming for 100 million international arrivals this year, a huge leap from the 67 million recorded last year.
“Travellers and consultants here are not as informed about the product as they could be,” he said.
To tackle that, Brand USA will launch an online education and certification programme for South-east Asia’s trade in 1Q2014.
“This is about creating a community of operators with a social element, so when somebody logs into this, completes a module, his rankings increase. Then when he goes on one of our fam trips, upload his experiences online, his rankings increase more.”
The trade can also expect co-op programmes that could extend to campaign funding.
Said Gray: “For (tour operators) buying advertisements or promotions around US products, we want to help them, may be in terms of bringing partners to the table that they may not have already talked to, unique itineraries, or just putting additional funds into campaigns.”
Read more in TTG Official Show Daily – ITB Asia
