NEWS 4
YOU NEED TO KNOW IPW 2016: Robin Searle reports from New Orleans
US ‘on track’ to hit 100m visitor target by 2021
US tourism chiefs are confident the country will hit its target of 100 million international annual visitors by 2021 and that this year’s presidential election will not hamper its ambitions.
Speaking this week at the
annual IPW conference in New Orleans, Brand USA chief executive Chris Thompson admitted the US faced challenges, one of which was the strength of the dollar. But he said the country was on
track to hit its targets. Thompson also expressed confidence that whoever wins this year’s presidential election would fully support the tourism industry.
5 ‘Orlando events won’t deter visitors’
Tourism bosses in Orlando are not anticipating a downturn in visitor numbers following the gun attack on a nightclub that left 49 dead and the death of a toddler at a Disney World hotel.
George Aguel, chief executive of
Visit Orlando, said the attack at the Pulse nightclub had prompted all tourism businesses in the city to review their security. The tourist board is making security information more prominent on its website to reassure those concerned. Two-year-old Lane Graves
was killed in an alligator attack
while paddling at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa last week. The company has been questioned over why it failed to warn guests of the risk from wild alligators and could face a multi- million dollar lawsuit. Disney is installing signage and
temporary barriers at its resort beach locations and is working on permanent, long-term solutions. Aguel said that monitoring of media channels and anecdotal evidence from industry partners suggested that neither incident would deter potential visitors. “Safety is our first priority and
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travelweekly.co.uk 23 June 2016
“Safety is our first priority…we can’t see any sign of people changing travel plans”
we have been reinforcing that, and at the moment we can’t see any sign of people changing their travel plans.” Aguel said UK visitor numbers
are expected to be up when figures for 2015 are released. However, he admitted concern over the potential impact of a
Brexit vote in the EU referendum. “We couldn’t be more pleased
with the UK market,” he said. “We have worked hard to get
the market back after some slow years, and we started to see a real upturn last year, which has continued moving into this year.” Aguel was speaking at the annual
IPW trade show, held this year in New Orleans, where Visit Orlando cancelled a press conference in the light of the Pulse attack. US Travel Association chief
executive Roger Dow also paid tribute to the victims at the event’s opening lunch.
Addressing concerns about
protectionist views voiced by likely Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Thompson said he believed Brand USA’s close relationship with the government would help persuade the next president of the value of travel and tourism to the US. He added that Brand USA’s
marketing message was now “in the DNA” of the nine federal agencies the organisation works with, and described those within the agencies as “career service people” who could influence policy from within government. “We know we are going to
have a new commander-in-chief this year, but we have a more compelling story about the travel and tourism industry [than before the creation of Brand USA] and we are confident we will have a great and supportive relationship,” Thompson said. When the target of 100 million
visitors by 2021 was set in 2011, it required compound annual growth in arrivals of 4.6%. After a strong 2014, that figure fell to
5 STORIES HOT Brand USA
is confident of support
from whoever becomes the
next US president
4.2% but has now risen to 4.8%. International arrivals to the US
grew from 62 million in 2011 to 77.9 million in 2014. There were 3.9 million UK arrivals in 2014. Research conducted by Oxford
Economics suggests that Brand USA’s marketing efforts have resulted in an additional three million incremental visitors over the past three years, and an additional $9.5 billion in incremental spending.
PICTURE: REUTERS/ TRISH BADGE
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