Push is on to sell U.S. abroad; may bring more international tourists to Newport

State tourism experts are excited about changes taking place at the national level to encourage more overseas visitors to come to the United States, an initiative they hope will bring more international tourists to Rhode Island, particularly Newport.
Under the Travel Promotion Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama in March, the Corporation for Travel Promotion is now a public-private entity, to be overseen by the Department of Commerce, “to combine the accountability of government with the expertise of the private sector,” said the U.S. Travel Association in a news release.
“The new law establishes a national public/private campaign to promote and market the U.S. and to communicate any changing security/entry/visa policies with foreign visitors,” Kristy Chandler, director of communications for the travel association, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., told Providence Business News. “We believe this will go a long way towards improving perceptions about travel to the U.S.”
In Rhode Island, Evan Smith, president of the Newport & Bristol County Convention & Visitors Bureau, said he and Martha Sheridan, his counterpart at the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau, went to Washington, D.C., last year to testify in favor of the legislation.
Prime time for overseas visitors in Newport, as it is for all of New England, is September and October due to the fall foliage, Smith said. He is hopeful that initiatives like the Corporation for Travel Promotion eventually will help bring more international tourists to the City by the Sea throughout the year.
A decidedly positive sign is that the number of cruise ships docking in Newport is slated to double this year compared to a year ago, Smith said.
Mark Brodeur, director of the tourism division within the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, said competition for overseas visitors among nations is fierce right now, so global travelers have plenty of countries to choose from if the U.S. does nothing to welcome them here. “We need a centralized campaign,” said Brodeur, who also is chairman of the board of Discover New England, the official tourism organization representing the six states.
In recent years, especially since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the number of international visitors coming to America for vacation has been dropping.
In 2009, the U.S. Travel Association said, 23.5 million vacationing visitors came to the U.S. from overseas, a decline of 7.1 percent compared with 25.3 million in 2008. Last year’s total is 2.4 million visitors fewer than in 2000, in spite of the fact that international travel worldwide increased by 46.3 million travelers between 2000 and 2009, the association said.
The Corporation for Travel Promotion seeks to reverse that trend, largely by spending a projected $200 million each year to promote the U.S. as a travel destination throughout the world. None of the funds comes from taxpayers.
Some $100 million is slated to come from the private sector and the other $100 million will be generated by a new $14 fee on international visitors who do not need a visa to come here. The fee went into effect Sept. 8 and, Chandler explained, applies only to visitors from the 36 countries that do not need a visa to visit America. Those needing a visa pay $131 to visit the U.S.
None of the new funds is slated to go to state or local travel bureaus, confirmed Geoff Freeman, executive vice president of the U.S. Travel Association.
What the corporation will do is “better explain America’s travel and security policies and let the world know that America wants their business,” said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. travel association. This can be done a number of ways, Freeman said, including direct advertising, added American participation in international trade shows and the increased use of foreign journalists to globally publicize the nation’s tourism assets. If the new law works as planned, the benefits would be considerable.
The travel association cites a 2010 analysis by Oxford Economics that found a well-executed, fee-funded promotion program of $200 million annually will attract 1.6 million new overseas visitors to the U.S. each year, add $4 billion to the economy annually, produce $320 million per year in new federal tax revenue and create about 40,000 new jobs.
In general, overseas visitors spend more time in the U.S. and spend more money here than their domestic counterparts.
Discover New England, based in Portsmouth, N.H., in a November 2009 report found that international visitors to America stay an average length of 15 nights, four times that of domestic visitors, and spend as much as 10 times more than a domestic visitor.
In Newport, Smith reported that 70 cruise ships were scheduled to dock in Newport during 2010, double the number in 2009. He cited several factors for the increase, including the growing popularity of cruises and the fact that Alaska recently tripled its port taxes so cruise lines are promoting other areas of the country such as New England. Roughly one-third of cruise passengers are from overseas, he estimated.
But the most popular way for international visitors to come to Newport is the fly/drive method, where visitors fly and then rent a car, he said.
From January through August of this year, 50,983 overseas visitors to Newport made up 17 percent of the total number of visitors, an increase of 8,147, or 19 percent, over the same period in 2009, according to the Newport & Bristol County Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Newport generally draws more international visitors than any other place in Rhode Island due to the presence of the Navy, the city’s connections to the elite of the sailing world, the mansions along the Cliff Walk and other factors. •