By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – Monday sees the U.S. Commerce Department unveil a new strategy to boost international tourism. It streamlines the entry process, promotes diverse destinations and removes COVID-19 restrictions.

According to the Department of Tourism, “National Travel and Tourism Strategy” aims for 90 million visitors from abroad by 2027. They will be spending an average $279 billion per year, which is higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Gina Raimondo, U.S. Commerce Secretary, stated in an interview that “there are many industries well beyond COVID — travel and tourism are not.”

According to Reuters’ draft strategy document, the federal government should do more to help the resurgence in travel and tourism so that the sector is “more resilient and sustainable” and becomes more equitable.

The United States hosted 79.4 Million International Visitors in 2019. This number dropped to 19.2million in 2020 when the pandemic struck, and rose to 22.1 million by 2021.

The Commerce Department reported that international tourists spent $239.4 Billion in 2019 but only $81 Billion in 2019, a total of $239.4B.

Tourism supported 9.5 million U.S. workers and produced $1.9 trillion of economic output before COVID.

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

Raimondo stated that “we need to simplify the entry process.” It’s slow and paper-based. We want to shift to digital.

The other goals are to promote more American tourism beyond the coast states and to reduce tourism’s contribution to 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 almost all of the countries that they service 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 explained that “I hear lots about it in industry” and that she has expressed this to the administration.