The destination marketing organisation for the US, Brand USA, faces the axe in president Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal 2018 budget issued last week, provoking an outcry of alarm from the US travel & tourism industry.
According to the budget document, the revenue of Brand USA would be made available to the US Customs and Border Protection.
Thompson
Contacted for comment, Brand USA’s president & CEO, Chris Thompson, reminded that the matter was still uncertain. “It is important to note that the budget any administration presents is a statement of priorities – not a budget that is presented to Congress to vote on. The administration’s proposal serves as a way to outline the priorities of the administration, but it is ultimately up to the Congress to formalise and vote on a final budget,” he said in an email to TTG Asia.
Brand USA was approved by Congress in 2010 and began operation in 2011. The most recent study by Oxford Economics shows that Brand USA’s marketing initiatives over the past four years have generated 4.3 million incremental visitors, US$13.6 billion in incremental visitor spending, US$29.5 billion in total economic impact (including indirect and induced impacts); nearly US$3.9 billion in federal, state and local taxes; and an average of 50,900 incremental jobs supported each year.
Brand USA returns to the US economy an average of US$27 for each US$1 spent on marketing activities, according to the study.
“Brand USA’s story is a compelling one that clearly demonstrates the significant impact the organisation has had on fuelling the nation’s economy by bringing millions of incremental visitors and billions of incremental dollars in spending to the US,” said Thompson.
An outcry as reported in the US trade media shows an industry caught by surprise – and horror – that Brand USA faces elimination. In one publication, US Travel Association president & CEO Roger Dow was quoted as saying the move would “surrender market share at the worst possible time”.
Already Brand USA has its work cut out for it in promoting the US as a friendly destination amid conflicting messages arising from Trump’s immigration policies.
In an interview in Bangkok on the sidelines of the WTTC Global Summit, before this latest development, Thompson told TTG Asia “what we’re dealing with is a perception issue versus the reality”.
Said Thompson: “The reality is everything that has made the US an aspirational destination all these years – nothing of that has changed. As a matter of fact, the brands that deliver the product – the hotels, retail attractions and experiences – are finding new ways to innovate themselves; the people who deliver those experiences, i.e. the US citizens, open their arms to visitors. Nothing of that has changed.
“As you and I are talking today, nothing legally has changed about how anybody in the world has to acquire visas to visit the US. The only thing that has changed as it relates to entry policy, legally, is the electronics that you can carry onboard, i.e. the laptop travel policy which affects 10 countries in the Middle East. While the number of visitors from those countries is small, the countries are gateways for many visitors, from Asia or otherwise, to the US, and we do know that there has been an impact. But that’s the only thing that has legally changed. Otherwise, a lot of the things have only been contemplated.”
– Read the View from the top with Brand USA’s Chris Thompson, TTG Asia, July 2017
