ST. LOUIS, Missouri, 24 May 2003 — The Travel Industry of America is currently hosting its 35th annual international convention in America’s heartland. This international “pow wow” has brought 4,000 members of the US tourism industry together to meet with 1,200 tourist professionals from 64 countries to sell their latest “Visit USA” tourism packages.
Usually a bustling event where $3 billion in travel contracts are exchanged, this year’s mood is, according to many participants, glum. Negative economic trends and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 have hurt many in the national and international travel industry. Additionally, international travel writers, brought in to cover the event, complain their papers are slashing jobs due to lack of advertising.
Delegation members here from the Gulf have their own tales of woe: visa confusion, interviews — or interrogations, as some view them — at US airports; rudeness by some custom officials and policemen; and travelers’ fear of what awaits them upon arrival, have all but killed the Arab travel and commercial market to the US. According to the US Embassy’s consular section in Riyadh, this has resulted in a half billion-dollar loss last year in US tourism revenue from Saudi Arabia.
But the visa and entry headache does not only plague Arab travelers. During a press briefing here with Douglas Baker, the deputy assistant secretary for tourism and finance at the US Department of Commerce, several international journalists complained of “rude and humiliating behavior” by customs officers when either they, or tourists from their country, entered the US.
“Customs agents in the US used to be friendly, but now they’ve become insensitive in their treatment of foreigners,” said a businesswoman attending TIA from India, who asked not be named.
But, with terrorism on everyone’s mind, Baker could only tell the press that TIA and the government were working together to establish a new government agency to address these problematic issues that, up until now, had fallen “between the cracks of different governmental agencies.”
William S. Norman, president and CEO of TIA, told journalists the “appropriate entry-exit visa system is not yet where it should be,” and said he expected changes announced by Homeland Security undersecretary Asa Hutchinson this Monday in Washington would eventually make entry to the US easier for international travelers.
Hutchinson said that beginning Jan. 1, 2004, the majority of foreign visitors arriving at US airports and seaports will have their travel documents scanned, and will be “biometrically identified” — fingerprints and photos will be taken — and identification will then be checked against terrorist watchlists.
The idea, Hutchison explained during his speech earlier this week, “will be that 99.9 percent of visitors will simply be wished a good day and sent on their way.”
The aim is to enable “US Visit” (Homeland Security’s new US visitor and immigration status indication technology) to check the comings and goings of foreign travelers.
In addition, a new “office of compliance” is being created to analyze information collected from foreign visitors. This, Hutchinson said, will create a “’smart border’ — one that speeds through legitimate trade and travel, but stops terrorists in their tracks.”
“By January 1st of next year,” said Hutchison, “if a foreign visitor flies into Dulles or JFK or LAX or another international airport or arrives at US seaport — the visitor’s travel documents will be scanned. Then, once a photo and fingerprints are taken, the person will be checked against lists of those who should be denied entry for any reason — terrorist connections, criminal violations, or past visa violations.”
Everyone in the travel industry recognizes security and travel are a tough balancing act. “The State Department and the Department of Homeland Security all feel political pressure to be tough,” said Richard Webster, TIA’s Director of Government Affairs.
“We have always stressed that security is critical, but so is the economy,” Webster told Arab News. “Legitimate travelers need to come into the US for business and pleasure, and the federal government needs to have a system in place that facilitates that entry.”
Webster said TIA was “very concerned” by the current visa and entry problems. “Congress has allocated $50 million for international promotion (for the US travel industry), but no level of promotion will overcome the negative perceptions and stories of what it takes to obtain a visa and enter the US for travel.”
He urged international travelers “not to believe the rumors” about visa and entry tribulations, and to seek professional travel advice from consulates and embassies in their countries. He also recommended a website, set up by the US State Department, which he considers useful for visa and travel inquiries: www.unitedstatesvisas.gov.
But all this offers little solace for Middle East businessmen.
“We never know how long it will take to get a visa for the US,” said Kamran Mustafa, Pow Wow chairman for Saudi Arabia, and member of TIA’s International Advisory Committee.
“The US visa program needs to be better organized so travelers can plan their trips. It also needs to clearly inform foreign visitors of the rules and procedures currently in place,” he said.
Mustafa, who travels frequently to the US, has been forced to jump through several procedural hoops because every time he enters the country, the registration process has changed.
While acknowledging the importance of security, he said a consistent system would be beneficial for all and save time for the authorities. “They’ve taken down my information so many times,” he said. “But each time I enter the country, I still have to fill out the same general forms. All this information should be available on the computer, and my fingerprints should access my previous files.”
Faisal Rashid, vice chair of the Saudi advisory committee, and vice chair of the TIA Visit USA Committee, said the problem for so many visitors is that no one knows exactly what they are supposed to do, which leads to confusion and fear for travelers.
“It seems that every day they change the rules, they are still experimenting with the process, forms and regulations,” said Rashid.
“Nobody knows what’s going on, and travelers should be advised in advance as to what they need to do when they travel to the United States,” he added.
But all agreed that the bottom line, for the travel industry and travelers, remains security.
“TIA recognizes the loss of travel to the US from the Middle East and we would like to reverse that decline,” said TIA’s Webster.
“It’s not a marketing issue, it’s a political issue, and we need to make a change through policy change,” he said. “But clearly incidents such as the recent bombings in Riyadh don’t help.”
“Unfortunately, there are some US officials who would rather not have any international travelers coming to the US,” said Webster. “Fortunately, they are in the minority.”
