Skift Take
The pandemic has highlighted Brand USA's role in driving international visitor demand and tourism's importance as the country's #2 export. Will the global fascination with coming to America transcend politics once borders reopen? Brand USA is betting on it.
On the eve of 2020, it seemed as if Congress would let Brand USA’s funding mechanism expire and that the U.S. might become the world’s first destination without an agency to market its destinations overseas. But at the 11th hour, attributed to a politically charged Trump year, Brand USA saw its funding mechanism renewed for seven years until 2027, a longer stretch than prior five-year stints.
Alas, Covid struck and brought Brand USA’s funding model to its knees because 50 percent of its revenues are sourced from a portion of Visa Waiver Program fees from 39 countries, with a requirement that 50 percent be matching contributions from the private sector. The drop in international visitors means fee collections this year are projected to reach $10 million versus an average of $110 million annually, according to the U.S. Travel Association (USTA).
Eighteen months later, however, the crisis hasn’t hurt the bipartisan support for Brand USA. It’s led a new bill — the Restore Brand USA Act —providing for a one-time allocation of $250 million in surplus funds for Brand USA for it to prepare for the recovery of international tourism in 2022. The bill, which emerged out of advocacy efforts from the Department of Commerce’s Travel and Tourism Advisory Board and the USTA, has passed the Senate so far.
“What this bill seeks to do is take some of the funds that are sort of already in a pot, if you will, that have been paid by international travelers and designating this money back — so there's been greater collection of fees beyond that $100 million that the program's been capped at, and so, that money is in there, and so we seek to
