Travel Industry Continues Visa Push

The U.S. Travel Association brought out its big guns today as a coalition representing the tourism industry pushes ahead with its effort to reform the tourist visa system. Joining USTA CEO Roger Dow at a press conference today were: Jim Abrahamson, the president of Interstate Hotels; Jim Atchison, the president of SeaWorld; Sam Gilliland, the chairman of Sabre Holdings; Stephen Joyce, the president of Choice Hotels International; Christopher Nassetta, president of Hilton Worldwide; Greg Stubblefield, the president of National Car Rental and Alamo Rent-a-Car; and other travel industry CEOs. Although the heavyweights largely repeated statistics already publicized by the campaign for tourist visa reform -- they say it would lead to 1.3 million new jobs by 2020, spur $859 billion in cumulative economic output and attract almost a 100 million new tourists -- they emphasized their commitment to passing legislation to address the problem. There are several bills in Congress that would, for example, increase the number of consular staff in countries like India, China and Brazil to reduce the time potential travelers have to wait to get a visa interview. Andrew Joseph 10 Nov 2011 http://influencealley.nationaljournal.com/2011/11/travel.php