By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – Monday sees the U.S. Commerce Department unveil a new strategy to increase international tourism. The goal is to reduce COVID-19 travel restrictions and streamline entry processes, while promoting diverse destinations.

The department stated that the “National Travel and Tourism Strategy”, which aims to reach 90 million tourists by 2027, will see them spend $279 billion each year. This is more than what was available pre-pandemic.

Gina Raimondo from the U.S. Commerce Department stated that there are many sectors well past COVID. “Travel and tourism is not one of them,” she said.

The draft strategy document by Reuters states that federal governments must support travel and tourism’s resurgence to make sure the sector rebuilds and is more resilient, sustainable, and equitable.

2019 saw 79.4 millions international visitors to the United States. This figure dropped to 19.2 million in 2020 due to the pandemic and rose only to 22.1million in 2021.

The Commerce Department reported that international tourists spent $239.4 Billion in 2019 but only $81 Billion in 2019.

Prior to COVID, the US had 9.5 million tourism jobs. The economy generated $1.9 trillion.

It is a strategy that aims to improve the entry process for Americans to visit the United States.

Raimondo stated that “we need to simplify the entry process.” “It is cumbersome, very paper-based, and we want to transition to a more electronic process.”

These goals also include expanding the U.S.’s tourism experience beyond its coastal areas, decreasing tourism’s impact on climate change, and creating a sector that can withstand natural disasters and other public health threats as well as the effects of climate change.

The reason that tourism declined so dramatically was because the United States lags many countries in lifting COVID borders restrictions which barred most of the world entering. The U.S. regulations were still in place as of November 2021.

USA still requires that foreign nationals be immunized against COVID. Nearly all international passengers must test positive before they travel. U.S. airlines claim that almost all countries they fly to do not require testing.

Raimondo recognized that tourism is hindered by testing and that America is an “outlier”, however, he did not anticipate when such rules could be changed.

Raimondo stated that he hears a lot from the industry about this issue and has been communicating it to the administration.