WASHINGTON, DC – On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Chair of the Commerce Subcommittee on Tourism, Trade, and Export Promotion, held a hearing to examine the 2022 National Travel and Tourism Strategy, published by the Department of Commerce to strengthen the global competitiveness of our nation’s travel and tourism industry and based on a provision in Senator Rosen’s bipartisan Omnibus Travel and Tourism Act. She also discussed ways to strengthen the travel and tourism industry, including by creating a high-level, Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary post in the Commerce Department to oversee tourism and pushing for one-stop security screenings for certain international travelers.
Travel Pulse: Senate Holds Hearing Analyzing 2022 National Travel and Tourism Strategy
By Donald Wood
Key Points:
- Led by Nevada Senator Jacky Rosen, Chair of the Commerce Subcommittee on Tourism, Trade, and Export Promotion, the meeting was designed to analyze the strategy’s attempt to strengthen the global competitiveness of the U.S. travel and tourism industry.
- “By following the new National Travel and Tourism Strategy, the federal government can continue to support this growth and help travel and tourism businesses in Nevada and the nation fully recover,” Senator Rosen said during the hearing.
- The National Travel and Tourism Strategy was first developed in 2012, but Senator Rosen urged her colleagues to push for the program to be revamped due to the coronavirus pandemic.
- As a result, the Department of Commerce announced in June a new strategy aimed at boosting the international tourism industry, with ambitious goals of welcoming 90 million international visitors by 2027 and achieving an estimated $279 billion in annual spending.
Bloomberg Government: US Tourism Sector Needs Its Own High-Level Post, Senators Say
By Mia McCarthy
Key Points:
- The idea of an assistant secretary in the Commerce Department to oversee the tourism industry was first introduced in June 2021 as part of S. 1947. Sullivan, as well as Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), the chair of the Tourism, Trade, and Export Promotion subcommittee, and its ranking member Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), all expressed support for appointing the position during the hearing.
- “We really need someone who wakes up every day and thinks about a national strategy because tourism is a top economic driver,” Rosen said.
- Rosen and Scott said after the hearing they hope to speed up the vote on the floor. Rosen said she discussed with Scott bringing the matter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
POLITICO Pro: Senators push for one-stop security screenings for some international travelers
By Alex Daugherty and Oriana Pawlyk
Key Points:
- During a Senate Commerce Tourism and Trade and Export Promotion subcommittee hearing, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) said eliminating a second security check for international travelers who are connecting to a flight in the U.S. is an important step to make air travel “as efficient and accessible as possible” while airports all over the world deal with staffing shortages and increased flight delays.
- “Currently, international air passengers, when they arrive in the United States who have subsequent transfer flights, they generally have to be screened again at an airport security checkpoint before boarding the transfer flight,” Rosen said. “My Omnibus Travel and Tourism Act [S. 3375 (117)] includes a provision that would allow passengers and baggage arriving from certain foreign airports to bypass a second round of screening if the point of last departure airport has screening commensurate to us in the United States, and we know that those airports do exist.”
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