Grant Harris
A senior Biden administration official on Thursday signaled the administration's intent to modernize entry procedures for visitors, including addressing visa wait times, in order to facilitate travel to and within the United States, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.
"I would say, ... what we’re hearing a lot from industry and what we’re focused on are addressing visa wait times and thinking about the workforce for the industry to make sure that the current needs are met and that there is a pipeline going forward of great people ready to go," Grant Harris, assistant secretary of Commerce for Industry and Analysis, said in response to TURAN's questions.
Harris was speaking to reporters during a briefing organized by the State Department's New York Foreign Press Center.
According to him, the Biden administration aimed at boosting international tourism hit hard by COVID-19, and that it has recently announced a broad federal initiative to get the nation’s pandemic-weary travel and tourism back on its feet. "We are really focused on a widespread recovery in the travel and tourism industry," he said.
The "National Travel and Tourism Strategy", announced on June 6, sets a goal of 90 million international visitors by 2027 who will spend an estimated $279 billion annually, topping pre-pandemic levels.
In 2019, the U.S. had 79.4 million international visitors, a figure that plummeted to 19.2 million in 2020 as the pandemic hit and rose to just 22.1 million in 2021.
"The administration’s robust vaccine rollout efforts and effective travel policies, including a recent decision to eliminate pre-departure testing, have helped U.S. tourism start to rebound. But we have a lot of work to do to return all segments of tourism in the United States to pre-pandemic levels and to grow beyond those levels as well," Harris said.
While one of the strategy's goals is to modernize entry procedures for visitors, other goals also include promoting more diverse U.S. tourism experiences beyond coastal states, reducing tourism's contributions to climate change and building a sector that is resilient to natural disasters, public health threats and the impacts of climate change.
Asked by TURAN whether Russia’s war in Ukraine has affected travel and tourism in the U.S. Harris said, in general, the war has caused energy prices to spike, it’s worsened inflation, it’s caused dramatic problems around the globe in addition to the loss of human life and the suffering.
"And [the Biden] administration has been seized with doing everything possible to try to bring an end to that war," he added.
Alex Raufoglu
Washington D.C.
Politics
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