The United States of America, just a few
years ago, was one of the few countries in the world that made no real
effort to encourage people in other countries to visit our country. In
2014, Senator Klobuchar and I worked to reauthorize Brand USA through
2020. In a combination of visa waiver fees and private dollars, efforts
have been successfully made to encourage people who want to be part of
our economy--even for a short period of time, as a tourist. It is
estimated that across all markets, each dollar of Brand USA marketing
generated more than $30 in visitor spending. Let me repeat: everywhere
we spent a dollar of Brand USA--and that is a public-private dollar--
more than $30 came to the United States, it is estimated, because of
that. It is important for the Senate to support programs that work. Brand
USA is one of those programs. The Visa Waiver Program and many others
have significant, positive economic impacts on our country, on
individual States, on local communities, and, by the way, on people
whose business and travel necessarily take them to other countries. Travel and tourism is one area where we have successfully worked
together in a bipartisan manner. I hope we can continue that progress
in this Congress.
Keywords matched
visa Visa