The 1995 Clinton speech that should have changed the U.S. travel industry, but didn’t
Photo Credit: June 28, 1998, President Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea visit The Great Wall in Mutianyu, China. White House / Sharon Farmer
Skift Take
History matters, and context matters, especially when it comes to understanding why U.S. lost out on the global tourism front, and what policies (or lack of them) led to it. A speech that could have been seminal would be a good place to start understanding this.
On October 30th 1995, President Bill Clinton gave a speech at the White House that should have been the seminal defining moment for the travel industry in America, cementing the rise of U.S. as the pre-eminent destination, once and for all.
This was the White House Conference on Travel and Tourism, the first ever event in U.S. history that was meant to elevate travel business and the business of promoting America as a destination to the federal level. The White House invited 1,700 leaders of the travel sector in U.S. for this conference, to unveil the new national tourism strategy.
This was supposed to be the start of opening up of America to tourists globally, making it easier for them to come to U.S., and building up a global marketing machine that promoted the country and its various attractions to visitors worldwide. Atlanta's Olympic Games were scheduled for the following year, and that would have been the perfect platform to promote U.S. tourism on a global scale.
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