Feature 1: The U.S. Travel Association has unveiled a plan called “Ready for Takeoff,” which highlights problems with the U.S. entry visa process and recommendations to improve it, complete with a website (www.smartervisapolicy.org) and a 52-page report with lots of data and charts.

Ready for Takeoff visa report, by U.S. Travel

The sum of it all is that if the system is reformed, the United States will get back its lost share of global long-haul travel, which fell from 17 percent pre-9/11 to just 12.4 percent in 2010.

By the numbers, it will mean 98 million more visitors by 2020, with $390 billion in additional exports; 1.3 million more jobs; and $859 billion in additional total economic output.

The recommendations include using technology such as videoconferencing for visa interviews and opening additional visa offices in countries with the biggest potential demand, like Brazil, China and India. It also asks for a reduction in visa interview wait times to 10 days or fewer, and an expansion of the Visa Waiver Program.

Full report “Ready for Takeoff” – Download (pdf)

Here’s the rest of the week’s interesting news:

Tourism Week: Fainting dinosaur upstages Texas tourism rally - Statesman.com
Tourism Week: Visit Bucks County social media seminar - phillyBurbs.com
Tourism Week: Virginia’s new and improved website – Virginia.org
Tourism Week: Getting California out of the red – Sun Herald

GetThere survey shows corporations are focusing on cost savings even as travel budgets increase – GetThere.com
GE Aviation study shows millions in savings for airlines, reduced flight time for travelers - GEAE.com

Why is video conferencing so slow to replace business travel? TMCNet
Why is Microsoft acquiring Skype? The Atlantic

Long antitrust saga ends for Microsoft - Seattle Times
Google sets aside $500 million for antitrust probe - Bloomberg
Expedia lawyer calls for more Google scrutiny in ITA deal - TechFlash

Google introduces service that shows users the inside of local businesses - BusinessWeek
Google lobbies Nevada to allow self-driving cars - NYT

Nevada Resort Association wants Amazon to collect tax - Seattlepi.com
Tax settlement with online travel agencies nets Horry County $1.7 million - TheSunNews.com

Hotels handing fewer rooms to online travel agencies - Washington Post
HotelTonight secures $3.25 million Series A Funding - HotelTonight.com
Tabbedout raises $3.7 million to simplify bar and restaurant payments – VentureBeat

Gilt Groupe, Inc. announces $138 million in new funding – Gilt.com
Will Groupon fatigue doom the daily-deals business? PC World

Hertz tops Avis with $2.24 billion offer for Dollar Thrifty - Bloomberg
Spirit Airlines sets IPO price range, eyes $320 million - Reuters

Airlines forced to compete on technology level to lure customers - postcrescent.com
Are travel brands scared of their own shadow? MediaPost

No-ride list for Amtrak trains? Reuters
Orbitz nabs Eurostar contract - FoxBusiness

Search for the best meetings industry technology – Meetpie
High-tech meetings: Hot tools for planning corporate events - ZDNet

Photo – USTA

Related posts:
TravelTechnology Weekly – NOLA Exhibits Visa Impact, Nevada Gambles On New Media…
USTA Shocker – America’s $509b Tab for Lost Decade

Visa Inc.’s Tourism Outlook: USA 2011 report shows an 18 percent increase in tourism spending in the United States by international Visa cardholders, from $29 billion in 2009 to more than $34 billion in 2010.

Visavue Travel data

U.S. Visa cardholders traveling internationally also increased their spending by 6 percent, from $29 billion in 2009 to $31 billion in 2010.

The three biggest source countries for inbound tourism to the United States were Canada ($9.2 billion), the United Kingdom ($2.5 billion) and Mexico ($2 billion).

Spending by Canadian visitors increased 18 percent from $7.8 billion in 2009 to $9.2 billion in 2010. For the past three years, Visa cardholders from Canada have been the biggest source market for the U.S. tourism economy.

Inbound tourism to the States from China showed the biggest year-on-year boost, with a 64 percent increase from $700 million to $1.1 billion in 2010.

Breakdown by state shows that international Visa cardholders spent the most in Florida ($6.6 billion), followed by New York ($5.6 billion) and California ($5.4 billion). Texas received $2.1 billion while Nevada got $1.8 billion.

Breakdown by sector shows that airline spending inbound to the United States by international Visa cardholders increased 24 percent from $1.3 billion in 2009 to $1.6 billion in 2010.

Lodging went up to $5 billion in 2010, amounting to almost 15 percent of total international Visa cardholder spend in 2010. Spending on restaurants increased to $1.8 billion in 2010, which represents more than 5 percent of total international cardholder transactions in 2010.

For outbound U.S. travelers, Canada and Mexico were the most popular destinations. Canada got $3.5 billion in spending by U.S. Visa cardholders in 2010, while Mexico got $3.1 billion. The next most popular destinations were all in Europe, with the United Kingdom getting $1.6 billion, Italy $1.3 billion, France $1.3 billion and Germany $1.1 billion.

Again, China was the country that enjoyed the biggest year-on-year growth (18 percent), with U.S. Visa cardholders spending $741 million in China in 2010 compared to $626 million in 2009.

A couple of notable events also clocked huge spurts in spending from U.S. travelers, such as the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, where 30,000 U.S. travelers spent more than $59 million on their Visa cards. American travelers visiting British Columbia during the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games spent approximately $61 million on their Visa cards.

The report notes that 2011 may not be as rosy as 2010 for the U.S. tourism economy because of the impact of Japan’s tsunami and nuclear crisis. Japanese Visa cardholders spent $1.8 billion in the United States in 2010.

Tourism Outlook: USA 2011 from Visa Inc. – Download full report (pdf)

Related posts:
Tourism Outlook: USA – Int’l Traveler Visa Card Spending up 20%
2010 Consumer Trends – Ypartnership/Harrison Group Survey
UNWTO – World Tourism Will Grow 3-4% in 2010

Visa Impact Study

Feature 1: At IAEE’s Expo! Expo! event in New Orleans, Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, outlined the association’s advocacy efforts to address international visa issues. - Expoweb.com 

Quantifying the impact of Visa issues on the U.S. economy (CEIR/Oxford Economics study) – Visa issues precluded 116,000 international participants from attending US exhibitions. It cost the US economy $2.6 billion, 43,000 jobs and three-quarters of a billion dollars in state and federal taxes - IAEE.org 

Obama promises to include Poland in visa free travel program – Foreign Policy 

Corporation for Travel Promotion plans to feature Obama in video - TravelWeekly 

Nevada Tourism ad as Google case study

The state estimates that it receives $31 in media exposure for every dollar spent. Prior to using some new media channels, the return was about $17 per dollar. – LV Sun 

Stephen P.A. Brown, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada – “Nevada tourism is making a comeback already from a really big blow.” – Wash. Post 

U.S. gaming revenues will increase to over $68 billion in 2014 with recovery expected in late 2011 – PricewaterhouseCoopers 

Here’s the rest of the week’s news headlines:- 

Google just dodged the Groupon bullet – The Motley Fool
Expedia shoots down google – The Motley Fool 

After getting hassled by Facebook, travel planner Placebook goes live as TripTrace – VentureBeat
Click! They found you a destination! - Boston Globe 

State of Massachusetts launches ill-conceived tourism campaign on YouTube – ReelSEO
YouTube’s Rapping Bavarian Nutcracker puts Leavenworth, WA on the map – Jaunted 

A detailed examination of the role of online social media in travel – PhoCusWright (press release)
How to create compelling content via social media (part 1 of 4) – Eye4Travel (press release) 

Technologies rapidly being developed to put space tourism within reach – EngineeringNews
Space company’s secret cargo a ‘cheesy’ joke – CNN 

Blackstone said to seize 14 Columbia Sussex hotels it sold five years ago – Bloomberg
Blackstone names Interstate Hotels & Resorts to manage 13 properties – IHRCO.com 

$1.2b in high-speed rail funds yanked from Ohio, Wisconsin and sent to other states – Chicago Trib
China’s CSR, GE may bid on California, Florida high-speed rail - BusinessWeek

A new report from Visa (Tourism Outlook: USA) shows that spending by international travelers in the US in the first six months of 2010 jumped 20% over 2009 levels.

Visa Tourism Outlook USA

2009 Visa spending by international visitors had dropped 12% over 2008, from $32.9 billion in 2008 to $28.9 billion in 2009.

The 20% jump from Jan 1-June 30, 2010 means that by the end of the year, 2010 spending could end up higher than 2008 levels, and may even breach pre-recession highs.

Visitors from Canada ($4.6 billion) and the UK ($1.2 billion) made the biggest contributions to inbound tourism spending in the first half of 2010, followed by Brazil ($835m), Mexico ($819m) and Japan ($787m).

The biggest year-on-year growth  (H1 2010 compared to H1 2009) came from Chinese visitors (74%), followed by Brazil (73%) and Australia (44%).

A statewise breakup of H1 2010 inbound tourism spending shows that Florida was the biggest beneficiary ($2.4 billion), followed by New York ($1.6 billion) and California (also $1.6 billion).

The other seven states on the top ten list include Texas ($594m), Nevada ($558m), Hawaii ($504m), Arizona ($274m), Washington ($262m), Illinois ($201m) and Massachusetts ($197m).

But Florida, inspite of getting the biggest share of inbound tourism spending, also suffered huge losses due to the BP oil spill in the Gulf Coast.

In May 2010, one month after the oil began leaking into the gulf, inbound tourism spending from international travelers to the Gulf Coast states was actually up year-over-year. But in between May and June 2010, the spending tanked by 42%.

Lodging took the biggest hit, with Visa cardholder spending on Gulf Coast lodging decreasing by 50%  (a loss of $6 million) from May to June 2010.

Tourism Outlook: USA – Download (pdf)