Delahunt Leads Press Conference Announcing Challenges to Travel Industry
Travel
Cape Cod Times
Paul Crocetti
Boston University Washington News Service
September 13, 2006
WASHINGTON—In an effort to strengthen the country’s image abroad, U.S. Rep. William Delahunt joined leaders of the travel industry Wednesday to propose steps to reduce barriers to travel to the United States.
The press conference, in a park near the Capitol, featured the launch of the Discover America Partnership. Funding for the program will come from two groups represented at the conference: the Travel Industry Association and the Travel Business Roundtable. Amid worries that travel to the United States is decreasing, the partnership said its goal is to attract 10 million additional visitors to the country each year.
“Locally, the concern has been that we have seen the decline in the number of international visits, coming to the Cape and the Islands, coming to Quincy, coming to Plymouth,” Delahunt said in an interview after the conference.
According to the Commerce Department,, travel to the United States dropped by almost 4 percent since 2000.
“It’s in our economic interest, particularly the Cape and the Islands, to encourage international business,” said Delahunt, a member of the International Relations Committee, “because we know that they stay longer than the domestic tourists and data is very clear that they spend four times as much. That means more tax revenue. That means more jobs. It’s a win-win.”
The Quincy Democrat said it is important for the international community to know that it will be welcomed here.
“At the national level, what we have to do is to convey to the rest of the world that the United States is a warm nation, not one that is inhospitable,” he said. “We want to encourage a better understanding of what America is about. We want to tell the world what our values are: that we respect diversity, that we embrace tolerance for others, despite ethnicity, despite nationality, despite religion.”
Delahunt also cited the difficulties many travelers face in getting into the United States.
“Part of the problem is people abroad feeling reluctant to go through the bureaucratic maze that often accompanies securing visas to come here,” he said. “So government has to streamline that process.”
Delahunt also recently worked to help the travel industry with his Cultural Coastline initiative, a project designed to promote travel to the Massachusetts coast. Travel is the largest industry in Cape Cod, according to Corinne Young, a district representative in Delahunt’s Quincy office.
Originally started in anticipation of the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, the project now has a budget of about $100,000, Young said. The project sends representatives to foreign countries to promote the coast as a vacation destination, Young said. Currently a representative from Plimoth Plantation is in Europe.
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