Speech #870011880

We want them to see what this country really looks like. Aside from the encouragement of tourist travel. the new Office of International Travel could do much toward providing leadership and coordination within the executive branch to reduce policies which in the past have sometimes discouraged tourists from coming to this country. On that point. the distinguished Senator from Washington. in his presentation of the bill. alluded to the procedure involved in the issuance of visas and the long questionnaires which the procedure involves. All of that discourages people from coming here. I recall one instance of an aroundtheworld cruise ship which touched at Miami as one port of call on its visits to many cities around the world. Of the 400 passengers on that aroundtheworld cruising ship. only 2 passengers got off the ship when it touched Miami. because of the great difficulty involved in getting an American visa. Our procedure for issuing visas is surely one of the most difficult and cumbersome in the world for a potential tourist to surmount. Our committee in the hearings on this bill heard testimony that in some cases the operations of our representatives abroad discouraged potential tourists from visiting our country because the difficulty of obtaining the visa would not be worth the trouble to them. Travel agencies in foreign countries discourage tourists from coming to the United States because it is necessary for these potential tourists to wait too long to get visas. The travel agents tell people overseas. "We cannot book you if you are going to include America in your tour. because of the difficulty of getting a visa." It is to be hoped that the new Office will take the lead in eradicating this type of thinking abroad and return our posture to our traditional one of encouraging all to come and visit our great democratic Republic. How much better it is than spending millions on telling our story overseas. to encourage those people to come to America and see for themselves what a free society is like. The authors and sponsors of this measure can take great pride in this work and I am sure that it will again be passed by the Senate by a vote of confidence such as it received last year.