Brand USA’s Funding Under Threat After 2015, and Congress May Not Help
Photo Credit: Brand USA's DiscoverAmerica.com consumer website touts the allures of rafting along the Salmon River in Idaho, and other attractions. Brand USA
Skift Take
You can debate whether Brand USA's strategy is the best way of promoting international visitations to the U.S. But, if the country is going to have a quasi-governmental tourism-marketing organization, it is tough for Brand USA to get on solid footing if it has to constantly look over its shoulder to figure out if it will get renewed funding life.
For years there was no official entity promoting the U.S. as a tourism destination, and now there is one, the public-private Brand USA, but its funding has become a partisan, political tussle.
Senate Democrats addressed the conundrum by including an amendment in the immigration reform bill, which passed the Senate last month, that would reauthorize the Travel Promotion Act that created Brand USA and fund the organization on an ongoing basis.
Brand USA is currently entitled to receive a maximum of $100 million per year in matching funds through September 30, 2015, with these funds coming from a $14 fee paid by international visitors as part of the Electronic System for Travel Authorization program.
The Senate measure would take that funding beyond 2015, and automatically extend it annually without having to go through periodic funding
