[Senate Hearing 117-708]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                        S. Hrg. 117-708

                    REVIVING INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL AND TOURISM 
                             TO CREATE AND RESTORE JOBS

=======================================================================

                                 HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                    SUBCOMMITTEE ON TOURISM, TRADE,
                          AND EXPORT PROMOTION

                                 OF THE

                         COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE,
                      SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                              MAY 18, 2021

                               __________

    Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
                             Transportation
                             
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


                   Available online: http://www.govinfo.gov
                             
                               __________

                                
                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
53-092 PDF                  WASHINGTON : 2023                    
          
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       SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                   MARIA CANTWELL, Washington, Chair
AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota             ROGER WICKER, Mississippi, Ranking
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut      JOHN THUNE, South Dakota
BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii                 ROY BLUNT, Missouri
EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts         TED CRUZ, Texas
GARY PETERS, Michigan                DEB FISCHER, Nebraska
TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin             JERRY MORAN, Kansas
TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois            DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska
JON TESTER, Montana                  MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee
KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona              TODD YOUNG, Indiana
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada                  MIKE LEE, Utah
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico            RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Colorado          SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West 
RAPHAEL WARNOCK, Georgia                 Virginia
                                     RICK SCOTT, Florida
                                     CYNTHIA LUMMIS, Wyoming
                   
                   David Strickland, Staff Director
                 Melissa Porter, Deputy Staff Director
       George Greenwell, Policy Coordinator and Security Manager
                 John Keast, Republican Staff Director
            Crystal Tully, Republican Deputy Staff Director
                      Steven Wall, General Counsel
                                 ------                                

          SUBCOMMITTEE ON TOURISM, TRADE, AND EXPORT PROMOTION

JACKY ROSEN, Nevada, Chair           RICK SCOTT, Florida, Ranking
AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota             DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska
TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois            MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee
JON TESTER, Montana                  RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona              SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West 
JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Colorado              Virginia
                                     CYNTHIA LUMMIS, Wyoming
                            
                            
                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page
Hearing held on May 18, 2021.....................................     1
Statement of Senator Rosen.......................................     1
    Prepared statement from the American Car Rental Association..     3
    Letter dated May 11, 2021 to the President from: Roger Dow, 
      President and Chief Executive Officer, U.S. Travel 
      Association; Geoff Ballotti, President and Chief Executive 
      Officer, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts; Ed Bastian, Chief 
      Executive Officer, Delta Air Lines; Nicholas E. Calio, 
      President and Chief Executive Officer, Airlines for 
      America; Anthony Capuano, Chief Executive Officer, Marriott 
      International, Inc.; Josh D'Amaro, Chairman, Disney Parks, 
      Experiences and Products; Christine Duffy, President, 
      Carnival Cruise Line; Robin Hayes, Chief Executive Officer, 
      JetBlue Airways Corp.; Peter Ingram, President and Chief 
      Executive Officer, Hawaiian Airlines, Inc.; Jerry Jacobs, 
      Jr., Chief Executive Officer, Delaware North; Peter Kern, 
      Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Expedia Group, 
      Inc.; Scott Kirby, Chief Executive Officer, United 
      Airlines; David Kong, President and Chief Executive 
      Officer, BWH Hotel Group; Elie Maalouf, Chief Executive 
      Officer, Americas, IHG Hotels & Resorts; Heather McCrory, 
      Chief Executive Officer, North & Central America, Accor; 
      Sean Menke, President and Chief Executive Officer, Sabre; 
      Christopher J. Nassetta, President and Chief Executive 
      Officer, Hilton; Patrick Pacious, President and Chief 
      Executive Officer, Choice Hotels International, Inc.; Doug 
      Parker, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, American 
      Airlines; Scott Sibella, President, Resorts World Las 
      Vegas; Chrissy Taylor, President and Chief Executive 
      Officer, Enterprise Holdings Inc.; Jonathan Tisch, Chairman 
      and Chief Executive Officer, Loews Hotels & Co; Andrew 
      Wexler, Chief Executive Officer, Herschend Enterprises.....     5
Statement of Senator Scott.......................................     6
Statement of Senator Blunt.......................................    24
Statement of Senator Blackburn...................................    26
Statement of Senator Sullivan....................................    28

                               Witnesses

Rosemary Vassiliadis, Director of Aviation, McCarran 
  International Airport..........................................     7
    Prepared statement...........................................     9
William D. Talbert III, CDME, President and CEO, Greater Miami 
  Convention & Visitors Bureau...................................    11
    Prepared statement...........................................    12
Christopher L. Thompson, President and CEO, Brand USA............    14
    Prepared statement...........................................    16

                                Appendix

Response to written questions submitted by Hon. Amy Klobuchar to:
    Rosemary A. Vassiliadis......................................    37
    Christopher L. Thompson......................................    38

 
  REVIVING INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL AND TOURISM TO CREATE AND RESTORE JOBS

                              ----------                              


                         TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021

                               U.S. Senate,
        Subcommittee on Tourism, Trade, and Export 
                                         Promotion,
        Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 3 p.m., in 
room SR-253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Jacky Rosen, 
Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding.
    Present: Senators Rosen [presiding], Scott, Blackburn, 
Sullivan, and Blunt.

            OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JACKY ROSEN, 
                    U.S. SENATOR FROM NEVADA

    Senator Rosen. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the 
second hearing of the Subcommittee on Tourism, Trade and Export 
Promotion. Today's hearing, reviving international travel and 
tourism to create and restore jobs, will examine the economic 
impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and international travel to 
the United States, and the ripple effects on related industries 
such as hospitality and tourism.
    We will also discuss regional impacts of the pandemic on 
communities and workers hardest hit by decreases in 
international travel to the United States. In Nevada, 
international travel and tourism are the lifeblood of our 
economy, and our airports have been the gateway to the Silver 
State for millions of domestic and international tourists and 
business travelers.
    In 2019 alone, Las Vegas McCarran International Airport saw 
over 50 million passengers, generated nearly $35 billion in 
economic output, and supported approximately 25,000 jobs. Was 
responsible for 18 percent of the region's gross domestic 
product, so our tourism is pretty important to us. And that is 
why the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic has been so 
devastating. The international travel slowdown has meant job 
losses not only in our amazing hotels and casinos and in our 
world class convention halls, but also at the airports 
themselves, from gate agents to concessionaires and other 
related small businesses.
    It has also devastated many of our restaurants, retailers, 
live entertainment venues, tour bus companies, rental car 
operators, street vendors and so much more. With such a 
daunting challenge to overcome in order to fully recover from 
the pandemic and turn the corner toward economic growth, we 
must invest and promote tourism at a greater level than ever 
before. And the numbers are staggering. According to the U.S. 
Travel Association, international inbound travel to the U.S. 
decreased by more than 75 percent in 2020--75 percent. 
International travel to Las Vegas was hit particularly hard, 
dropping nearly 80 percent.
    That was a major driver of the nearly 30 percent 
unemployment rate that Nevada faced in April 2020, and it is 
one of the reasons why we still have one of the highest 
unemployment rates in the Nation. And our recovery, while 
underway, may not come as quickly as parts of the country 
less--as some of those parts of the country that are much less 
dependent upon tourism. Despite an overall 6 percent 
unemployment rate nationally, the leisure and hospitality 
industry still had a 13 percent employment rate--unemployment 
rate, March of this year. We heard in our first hearing that 
the Subcommittee held a domestic leisure travel will bounce 
back more quickly while international travel and business 
travel will take much longer.
    Improved Federal guidelines could help ensure an expedited 
return to economic growth to this sector. It is critical 
because foreign travelers play a particularly important role in 
tourism heavy economies. In 2019 alone, international visitors 
to the United States spent over $250 billion in our country. 
That statistic is all the more alarming when paired with the 
analysis from Oxford Economics that a recovery to 2019 
international travel levels to North America likely won't occur 
until 2024. If we want to move that timeline up, well, we have 
got to act now.
    So we have an excellent panel of witnesses here today, both 
virtually and in person, to share their expertise on this 
subject to provide insight and recommendations for the best 
path forward, and, of course, take questions from the members 
of this subcommittee. I am particularly glad to have with us 
today Rosemary Vassiliadis from McCarran International Airport 
to share her perspective on how the Las Vegas airport system 
dealt with the challenge posed by the depressed international 
travel over the past year, and why bringing international 
travelers back to Nevada and the rest of our country is just so 
critical for our travel and tourism economy.
    But for today's hearing, we also have representation from 
Brand USA, the Nation's primary organization dedicated to 
marketing the United States as the premiere destination for 
international travelers. Of course, we also have the Greater 
Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. They add the perspective 
of another world class American city, and following the 
extremely helpful testimony, of course, we received from my 
very own Las Vegas convention and visitors authority.
    And this discussion is timely as just as last week the CDC 
announced that individuals who are fully vaccinated may forego 
mask wearing in most situations, however individuals traveling 
on planes, trains, busses, other forms of public 
transportation, and at transportation hubs such as airports and 
train stations, will need to continue to wear masks. Despite 
the pandemic continuing into 2021, the already successful 
vaccination rollout will soon lead to the return of conventions 
to our sporting events, live entertainment trade shows, and so 
many more of the events that increase international travel from 
all over the world to Nevada to Florida and to other tourism 
hubs in the United States.
    It is my hope that today's hearing of this subcommittee 
will help us to better understand the challenges that 
communities face from the depressed travel trends caused by the 
pandemic and will provide the forum for a robust discussion on 
how to encourage the resumption of international travel. To add 
to this discussion, I would like to submit to the record a 
letter from the U.S. Travel Association, which makes 
recommendations for encouraging, excuse me, international 
travel, including congressional support for Brand USA.
    I would also like to submit for the record a letter from 
the American Rental Car Association regarding the impact of the 
pandemic slowdown in international travel on the domestic 
rental industry, along with ideas for reviving international 
tourism.
    [The information referred to follows:]

                                                       May 11, 2021

The President
The White House
Washington, DC.

Dear Mr. President:

    Thank you for your leadership to strengthen our Nation's response 
to COVID-19 and put the United States on a path to defeat the virus. 
Because of the progress your administration has made, we now have the 
opportunity to safely reverse the devastating economic damage caused by 
the pandemic. As leaders of America's travel and tourism industry, 
which has been the hardest hit sector of the economy, we respectfully 
urge your administration to seize this opportunity and quickly develop 
a roadmap to safely reopen international travel to the United States by 
this summer, starting with a travel corridor between the U.S and the 
United Kingdom (U.K.)
    While U.S. borders remain closed to much of the world, the 
remarkable scientific advancements to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and 
the tremendous vaccine deployment achieved by your administration have 
allowed the safe resumption of many activities. For all its economic 
and cultural contributions, international travel should be among them 
and it will hasten the economic recovery we all desire. We also can 
rebuild our leadership on the global stage, our position in the world 
and bring people back together again--one of the great benefits of 
travel.
    Based on science and data, resumption of travel between low-risk 
countries, and in particular among vaccinated individuals, should be 
allowed to resume. The CDC has said as much regarding domestic travel.
    International travel is projected to take the longest to recover--
at least five years--without significant intervention. Prior to the 
pandemic, international inbound travel to the U.S. contributed $234 
billion in export income to the U.S. economy, generated a trade surplus 
of $51 billion, and directly supported 1.2 million American jobs. 
However, the steep decline in travel in 2020 resulted in the loss of 
$150 billion in export income and 1.1 million jobs. If nothing is done 
to lift entry restrictions, the U.S. is projected to lose an additional 
$175 billion by the end of this year.
    A clear path forward, relying on current data and science, is 
needed to ease entry restrictions and quickly and safely reopen this 
critical segment of America's economy.
    There are several steps your administration can take to get 
started, including:

  1.  Starting with the United Kingdom, quickly establish public health 
        corridors (PHCs) between the U.S. and other low-risk countries. 
        We respectfully urge you to engage with Prime Minister Boris 
        Johnson to secure a commitment to quickly establish a travel 
        corridor between the U.S. and theU.K. The Federal government 
        should then expand similar PHCs to other low-risk countries.

      Establishing a U.S.-U.K. public health corridor would be a 
        crucial step in our country's recovery. A recent study found 
        that restarting travel between the U.S. and the U.K. could 
        deliver over $4 billion in economic impact and support almost 
        300,000 jobs in the U.S. over the next several months.

  2.  Establish a public-private taskforce to develop a risk-based 
        roadmap, starting this May, for safely reopening inbound 
        international travel to the U.S. from countries in addition to 
        the U.K. Similar to our global competitors, the Federal 
        government should assign a public-private task force to develop 
        this roadmap using a risk-based data-driven approach to lift 
        international entry restrictions. The data and science show 
        that the right tools are now in place to mitigate risk and 
        safely begin to ease international entry restrictions by July 
        1, 2021. In particular, as we increase vaccination rates here 
        in the U.S., easing of restrictions should be enhanced.

  3.  Utilize the upcoming G7 summit to seek commitments from other G7 
        leaders to develop and implement a global framework for safely 
        and fully reopening international travel between countries. The 
        global framework should focus on leveraging COVID-19 testing, 
        vaccinations, recovery status and digital health credentials to 
        restart international travel as global conditions improve.

    The U.S. must be a global leader in restarting international 
travel. Using science and data as our guide, it is possible to reopen 
our borders and establish these important public health corridors. It 
would be incredibly productive if we could advance our dialogue and 
partner with your administration to set a framework for the safe 
restart of international travel.
    We are grateful for your leadership and remain hopeful that all 
segments of America's travel industry can soon be safely restarted in 
order to contribute in significant ways to an overall recovery and 
bring the U.S. back together with the rest of the world.
            Respectfully,

Roger Dow, President and Chief Executive Officer
U.S. Travel Association

Geoff Ballotti, President and Chief Executive Officer
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

Ed Bastian, Chief Executive Officer
Delta Air Lines

Nicholas E. Calio, President and Chief Executive Officer
Airlines for America

Anthony Capuano, Chief Executive Officer
Marriott International, Inc.

Josh D'Amaro, Chairman
Disney Parks, Experiences and Products

Christine Duffy, President
Carnival Cruise Line

Robin Hayes, Chief Executive Officer
JetBlue Airways Corp.

Peter Ingram, President and Chief Executive Officer
Hawaiian Airlines, Inc.

Jerry Jacobs, Jr., Chief Executive Officer
Delaware North

Peter Kern, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Expedia Group, Inc.

Scott Kirby, Chief Executive Officer
United Airlines

David Kong, President and Chief Executive Officer
BWH Hotel Group

Elie Maalouf, Chief Executive Officer, Americas
IHG Hotels & Resorts

Heather McCrory, Chief Executive Officer, North & Central America
Accor

Sean Menke, President and Chief Executive Officer
Sabre

Christopher J. Nassetta, President and Chief Executive Officer
Hilton

Patrick Pacious, President and Chief Executive Officer
Choice Hotels International, Inc.

Doug Parker, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
American Airlines

Scott Sibella, President
Resorts World Las Vegas

Chrissy Taylor, President and Chief Executive Officer
Enterprise Holdings Inc.

Jonathan Tisch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Loews Hotels & Co

Andrew Wexler, Chief Executive Officer
Herschend Enterprises
                                 ______
                                 
           Statement from the American Car Rental Association
    The Board of Directors and members of the American Car Rental 
Association (ACRA) respectfully submit this statement to the Tourism, 
Trade and Export Promotion Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science 
and Transportation Committee on the occasion of the Subcommittee's 
hearing on ``Reviving International Travel and Tourism to Create and 
Restore Jobs.'' ACRA asks that this statement be included in the 
official record of the hearing.
    ACRA thanks you Chair Rosen and Ranking Member Scott for convening 
this important hearing. ACRA's members look forward to working with you 
and your staff as our industry--and the nation--moves toward reviving 
both domestic and international travel and tourism in the wake of the 
devastating COVID-19 pandemic.
The American Car Rental Association
    The American Car Rental Association is the national representative 
for over 98 percent of our Nation's car rental industry. ACRA's 
membership is comprised of over 300 car rental companies, including all 
of the brands you would recognize such as Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, 
Enterprise, Fox, Hertz, National, Sixt and Thrifty. ACRA members also 
include many system licensees and franchisees, mid-size, regional and 
independent car rental companies as well as smaller, ``mom & pop'' 
operators. ACRA members have almost 2 million registered vehicles in 
service in the United States, with fleets ranging in size from one 
million cars to ten cars.
The Impact of the Pandemic on the U.S. Car Rental Industry
    The basic statistics regarding the impact of the pandemic on the 
car rental industry since February 1, 2020 are simple and are not 
unique to the car rental industry--but they are compelling nonetheless:

   Car rentals at airport locations (which represent 
        approximately 50 percent of all car rentals each year in the 
        United States) were down between 50 and 90 percent when 2020 is 
        compared to 2019, depending on the location;

   Car rentals at non-airport locations (again, about 50 
        percent of overall rentals) are down between 50 and 100 percent 
        from 2019 to 2020, with some locations shuttered due to lack of 
        rentals;

   ACRA members laid off or furloughed approximately 60,000 
        individuals this year--approximately 35 percent of the 
        industry's U.S. workforce--in 2020;

   Two of the Nation's top five car rental companies in terms 
        of fleet size sought protection under Chapter 11 of the 
        bankruptcy code in 2020 and other smaller ACRA members may have 
        taken similar actions; and,

   In 2019, ACRA member companies purchased 1.74 million new 
        cars for their rental fleets--one of every eight new cars sold 
        in the United States that year; in 2020, purchases of new cars 
        by ACRA members declined by 50 percent to approximately 811,000 
        vehicles -- causing economic ripple effects through the entire 
        U.S. economy.
Near-Term Prospects for Recovery
    The health of the American car rental industry will return as 
Americans and international travelers return to the robust business and 
leisure travel levels we witnessed in 2019. The second quarter of 2021 
has seen an increase in car rental demand in some markets--particularly 
in leisure destination markets during the Easter/Spring Break season. 
And ACRA members are working hard to meet the increased demand after 
selling vehicles from their fleets in 2020 when travel came to a 
virtual standstill. However, ``refleeting'' will not happen overnight, 
particularly given vehicle manufacturers have had to slow down their 
production of vehicles in 2021 due to supply chain shortages--
particularly with respect to semi-conductors.
ACRA's Recommendations for Federal Government Actions
    ACRA concurs, with respect to the revival of international tourism, 
with the recommendations contained in the May 11, 2021 letter to 
President Biden from the leaders of some of the Nation's leading travel 
tourism (attached). A large percentage of car rentals at our Nation's 
airports involve international business and leisure travelers and the 
sooner international travel can be restored to pre-pandemic levels, the 
sooner America's car rental industry will experience a sustained and 
widespread increase in demand for rentals, which will lead ACRA members 
to increase their purchase of new vehicles and to hire or rehire 
employees to serve these increased car rental customers.
                                 * * *
    Thank you for your attention to ACRA's views on the promotion of 
international tourism. If this statement raises questions in the minds 
of Committee members or if there is additional information we can 
provide, please do not hesitate to contact Greg Scott, ACRA's 
government relations representative, at 202-297-5123 or at 
[email protected].

    Senator Rosen. So I thank you all again for being here 
today. I look forward to hearing each of you share your 
experiences and expertise with us. Now, I will turn it over to 
Ranking Member Scott for his opening statement and then 
introduce our witnesses so they can provide testimony to the 
panel. Senator Scott.

                 STATEMENT OF HON. RICK SCOTT, 
                   U.S. SENATOR FROM FLORIDA

    Senator Scott. I want to first thank Chair Rosen for 
hosting this meeting today, this hearing today, and I want to 
thank each of you for being here. I want to recognize Chris 
Thompson. Chris was running and Visit Florida when I got 
elected at the end of 2010, and we started a path of continued 
investment. And over an eight-year period of time, we took the 
number of tourists in Florida, which had sort of stagnated 
around 80 million tourists to 126 million tourists by the time 
I left office. In Florida, every 87 tourist is another Florida 
job. So I ran on jobs, and Visit Florida did a great job and 
tourism really grew. So I want to thank Chris for that.
    I want to recognize Bill Talbert. Bill, as the President 
and CEO of the Greater Miami Convention Visitors Bureau, you 
cannot find much more of an advocate for tourism than Bill. We 
have had the opportunity to work together the entire time I was 
Governor and since I have been Senator, and he is a true 
champion for our state's travel industry, I want to recognize 
Ms. Vassiliadis. All of us have enjoyed flying into Vegas. The 
Vegas airport does a great job and I told Chair Rosen, my first 
year in office, we went to Rio de Janeiro, and it was, I think, 
the biggest tourism conference in the world every year.
    And the group that the biggest--and a really nice spot 
there was Las Vegas. And they do a really good job of promoting 
Las Vegas and creates a lot of jobs. So I know the pandemic has 
impacted each of us differently, and we have all had to adjust 
to make sure our families, our businesses, and employees stay 
safe. I want to thank everybody for your hard work. Florida is 
a global travel destination and of course as Governor I tried 
to make it the number one travel destination in the entire 
world, and my biggest competition, of course, was Vegas. People 
from all over the world come to enjoy our beaches, attractions, 
and all our state has to offer. When I was Governor, we worked 
hard to grow our tourism industry. By the way, you can win the 
best State parks every 6 years.
    There is only one state in the United States that has ever 
won it twice. There is only one state that has won it three 
times. And it is the great state of Florida. So, it is 
unfortunate what has happened with the pandemic because I think 
it has had the biggest impact on travel and tourism of any 
industry in the country. And it has hurt a lot of people that 
rely on--they don't have a guaranteed salary. They are relying 
on people showing up in tips and things like that. I have had 
the opportunity to work across the aisle on several bills, help 
try to keep our family safe and be able to try to get us back 
to work as quickly as possible.
    Last week, my bipartisan Fly Safe and Healthy Act with 
Chair Cantwell of the Commerce committee, which passed, would 
create a temperature check pilot program at the airports and 
passed the Commerce committee. We have a bipartisan bill called 
Fly Safe K-9 COVID Detection Act with Senator Sinema, which 
directs the TSA to conduct a feasibility study on the use of K-
9 units to detect COVID and provide an additional level of 
passenger screening. Also introduced my Cruise Act, the cruise 
industry is pretty big in Florida, with Senator Sullivan, 
another state that is pretty big, to help the cruise industry 
restart and support the many businesses in our communities that 
rely on the success of the cruise industry.
    It looks like we are finally making some progress with the 
CDC, which was pretty frustrating for quite a while. As our 
Nation works to recover from the coronavirus and get our 
economy back on track, I along with Chair Rosen are doing 
everything we can to support the travel industry in Florida and 
Nevada and all across the country. So we have got to figure out 
how to get people back to work, and I look forward to hearing 
from the witnesses today. Thank you, Chair Rosen.
    Senator Rosen. Well, thank you, Senator Scott. And now I 
would like to introduce our first witness who is testifying 
remotely today. Rosemary Vassiliadis, Director of Aviation at 
McCarran International Airport. Ms. Vassiliadis is an industry 
expert with over 20 years of experience in aviation leadership. 
She directs all operations at Clark County's airport system, 
which include McCarran International Airport and four general 
aviation facilities in southern Nevada. Clark County's airport 
system directly employs more than 17,000 people, and in 2019 
handled in excess of 50 million passengers. Ms. Vassiliadis, 
you are recognized now for your opening remarks.

  STATEMENT OF ROSEMARY A. VASSILIADIS, DIRECTOR OF AVIATION, 
                 McCARRAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

    Ms. Vassiliadis. Well, thank you and good afternoon. To 
begin, let me thank Senator Cantwell as Chair of this 
Committee. But Senator Rosen, who is presiding over this 
subcommittee, I really do appreciate your kind remarks and 
really setting the story for us along with Ranking Member 
Scott. I am really glad that you enjoy those conferences in Las 
Vegas and we can't wait for you to come back. And of course, I 
appreciate all the other Committee members present here today.
    You know, this is a great opportunity to share the airport 
perspective, encouraging the resumption of travel, especially 
international tourism, which is so vital to Las Vegas, as well 
as to many other U.S. airports and their communities. 
Restarting international air travel is a critical step to 
supporting recovery of our tourism based economy. Prior to the 
pandemic, nonstop international service was a wonderful success 
story for Las Vegas. The number of passengers these flights 
carried increased each year for nine consecutive years, tapping 
out at 3.8 million in 2019.
    These are remarkable numbers for a point to point 
destination such as Las Vegas, which differs greatly from 
traditional U.S. gateway hubs like Atlanta, Chicago, L.A., or 
Miami. At our 2019 peak, Las Vegas enjoyed nonstop service to 
and from 11 different countries around the globe. Now that 
number is down to one, Mexico. Over the first 4 months of 2021, 
our international volume has amounted to less than 80,000 
passengers. However, there is hope on the horizon. Almost every 
week I or members of my team hear from representatives of 
international air carriers expressing interest in quickly 
resuming flights to Las Vegas, many sites' strong pent up 
demand with customers who can't wait to return to the United 
States once current travel restrictions, particularly those 
affecting non-essential leisure and convention visitors, are 
finally lifted.
    These airlines ask us point blank, what is the U.S. doing 
to reopen travel? When will our airline be able to resume 
bringing vacationers and conventioneers to Las Vegas? So to 
take advantage of this opportunity, ideally in time for the 
2021 summer travel season, we need immediate active leadership 
from the U.S. Government. We must develop a risk-based roadmap 
to allow global travel to return in earnest while still 
protecting the health and safety of the traveling public and 
our communities. In the written submittal of my testimony, I 
have mentioned some examples of risk-based approaches that are 
occurring elsewhere around the world. For the sake of time all, 
I will only summarize those points today.
    The International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO, is 
a specialized agency of the United Nations, and with support of 
the FAA, it recently put forward a testing and cross-border 
risk management measurements manual. ICAO advocates for a 
flexible approach to opening borders, adjusting for real time 
conditions such as vaccination rates and the severity of COVID-
19 outbreaks at both the destination and point of origin. The 
United Kingdom has put in place its own risk-based measures 
that have opened its borders to select countries, but notably 
not the United States. The European Union is expanding a 
digital certification process to open movement among those who 
have been vaccinated, have received a negative test result, or 
have recovered from COVID-19.
    These approaches differ greatly from the United States, 
where a Presidential proclamation presently bans nearly all 
travel from specific countries, including United Nations and 
the United Kingdom. This blanket approach is unnecessarily 
crippling our economic productivity. There is a better way, and 
our Nation must move quickly to implement existing solutions 
for safely admitting international travelers. I ask that we 
engage in the worldwide discussions on guidelines and standards 
for authenticating testing and the vaccination status for 
international travelers.
    Once guidelines are established, the U.S. Government must 
then recognize and accept other countries' digital health 
credential programs. Reciprocity is critical. You know, we all 
know America has been recognized as the world leader in 
commercial aviation, and this is a critical time for it to lead 
the world back to global connectivity and economic growth. And 
finally, Congress must enable the necessary investments to make 
essential changes to our airports infrastructure, including 
many health related considerations that have come about from 
the pandemic. We cannot do this without an increase in the 
amount of funds airports can collect from the passenger 
facility charge, or PFCs.
    The PFC cap has not kept pace with rising construction 
costs or inflation since it was last adjusted to $4.50 more 
than 20 years ago. Since then, its purchasing power has eroded 
by more than 40 percent. Adjusting this Federal cap on local 
PFCs would reduce financial pressure and give airports the 
option of using more local funds for their infrastructure 
needs. Such investments will then help airports to attract new 
carriers and entice existing ones to expand, thereby promoting 
competition and lowering fares into their communities.
    And this would all be done in a manner that promotes 
safety, health, and increased traveler confidence. So I 
sincerely appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today on 
behalf of airports across the United States, and I will be 
pleased to answer any questions you may have at the appropriate 
time. Thank you, Senator.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Vassiliadis follows:]

       Prepared Statement of Rosemary A. Vassiliadis, Director, 
                  Clark County Department of Aviation
    Chairwoman Rosen and members of the Committee, thank you for this 
opportunity to share my views on ways to encourage the resumption of 
travel, especially international tourism which is so vital to Las 
Vegas. Restarting international air travel is a critical step to 
supporting the recovery of our tourism-based economy. Prior to the 
pandemic, nonstop international service was a wonderful success story 
for Las Vegas. The number of passengers who came to Las Vegas via 
foreign-flag air carriers increased each year from 2011 through 2019, 
topping out at nearly 3.8 million annual passengers in both 2018 and 
2019. These are remarkable numbers for a point-to-point destination 
market such as Las Vegas, which differs greatly from traditional U.S. 
gateway hubs such as Atlanta, Chicago or Los Angeles. At our 2019 peak, 
Las Vegas enjoyed nonstop service to and from 11 different countries 
around the globe; now that number is down to one, with Mexico 
representing our lone international market currently in service. Over 
the first four months of 2021, our international volume has amounted to 
less than 80,000 passengers.
    There is hope on the horizon, however. Almost every day I or 
members of my team hear from representatives of international air 
carriers expressing interest in quickly resuming service to Las Vegas. 
Many cite strong pent-up demand among their customers who can't wait to 
return to the United States once today's travel restrictions--
particularly those affecting ``non-essential'' leisure and convention 
visitors--are finally lifted. These airlines ask us point blank: What 
is the U.S. doing to reopen travel? When will our airline be able to 
resume bringing vacationers and conventioneers to Las Vegas?
    To take advantage of this opportunity, ideally in time for the 2021 
summer travel season, we need immediate, active leadership from the 
U.S. government to develop a risk-based roadmap that will allow global 
travel to return in earnest while protecting the health and safety of 
the traveling public and citizenry. One such approach is recommended in 
the ``Testing and Cross-border Risk Management Measures Manual'' 
published by ICAO (with support from the FAA). If implemented, it could 
enable global connections based on a flexible approach which adjusts as 
the prevalence of COVID-19 changes on either end of a route. The EU is 
gradually deploying methods to reopen its members' borders for 
vaccinated passengers, and the United Kingdom has embraced an approach 
similar to ICAO's as documented in its Global Travel Taskforce report 
published in April 2021. These actions have opened the door for U.K. 
residents to begin non-essential travel to select countries later this 
month. I must note that the United States was not included among the 
U.K.'s recent list of cleared destinations, creating a major hurdle 
toward reconnecting Las Vegas with its top overseas visitor market.
    The targeted, risk-based approaches we see in other nations are a 
more effective strategy than the blanket, blunt approaches currently 
employed here, where a Presidential Proclamation presently bans all 
travel between the U.S. and specific countries. The 212(f) and 215(a) 
immigration restrictions from the Immigration and Nationality Act 
(INA), put in place by the Presidential Proclamation on January 25, 
2021, do not necessarily achieve the goal of reducing transmission of 
COVID-19, and unnecessarily cripple the ability for economic 
productivity that could safely be supported through the aforementioned 
recommended models occurring elsewhere around the world.
    In addition to adopting a targeted, risk-based approach, the U.S. 
government also needs to lead the world in establishing ways to safely 
admit international travelers. To be clear, aviation industry members 
are not advocating for a Digital Health Credential (DHC) mandate, but 
we do need the government to set the parameters and criteria for 
accepting solutions that are already being implemented in other parts 
of the world. The U.S. should engage these worldwide discussions with 
guidelines or standards for the use of DHC in authenticating testing 
and vaccination status for international travelers. Establishing a 
harmonized approach for the implementation of these DHCs will allow the 
traveling public to understand the requirements for international 
travel and reduce the occurrence of fraudulent documentation.
    Once guidelines are established, the U.S. government needs to work 
to recognize and accept other countries' DHC programs, such as the 
European Digital Green Certificate. On 17 March 2021, the European 
Commission presented a proposal to create a Digital Green Certificate 
to facilitate the safe, free movement of its citizens within the EU 
during the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital Green Certificates will be valid 
in all EU Member States. A Digital Green Certificate is digital proof 
that a person has either, (1) been vaccinated against COVID-19; (2) 
received a negative test result; or (3) recovered from COVID.
    The U.S. has long been recognized as the world leader in commercial 
aviation, and this is an important opportunity for it to lead the world 
back to global connectivity and the creation of economic vitality.
    Finally, Congress must enable the necessary investments in our 
Nation's airports to make essential changes to our health 
infrastructure. These could include upgrading our ventilation and 
filtration systems, installing more Plexiglas barriers, or building out 
terminals to accommodate for physical and social distancing. We cannot 
accomplish these needed airport modifications without an increase in 
the amount of funds airports can collect from the passenger facility 
charge (PFC). With the dramatic decline in passengers and PFC revenue 
over the past year, many airports were forced to extend their 
collection periods for current PFC-funded projects, depleting available 
funding for other critical projects. Adjusting the Federal cap on local 
PFCs would reduce this financial pressure and give airports the option 
of using more local funds for their infrastructure needs. The PFC cap 
has not kept pace with rising construction costs or inflation since it 
was last adjusted to $4.50 more than 20 years ago. Since then its 
purchasing power has eroded by 40 percent. Modernizing the outdated 
Federal cap on PFCs would give airports the self-help they need to 
invest in the terminals, gates and ramps necessary to build back 
better, and once again attract new air carriers and entice existing 
ones to expand, thereby promoting competition and lowering airfares for 
their communities. Thank you.

    Senator Rosen. Well, thank you, Ms. Vassiliadis. I really 
appreciate that. And right now, I would like to recognize 
Senator Scott to introduce our next witness, Mr. Talbert. 
Senator Scott.
    Senator Scott. Thanks, Chair Rosen. Well. Mr. Talbert, Bill 
and I got to work--we traveled all over the world. We did a lot 
of conferences to try to get more tourists. And Bill, he is a 
great promoter for not just for the Miami area, but actually 
for the entire state of Florida. And he works hard and is just 
a great promoter. So Bill Talbert.

 STATEMENT OF WILLIAM D. TALBERT III, CDME, PRESIDENT AND CEO, 
           GREATER MIAMI CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU

    Mr. Talbert. Thank you, Governor--I mean, Senator. I 
appreciate that. As you know, I was born in Jacksonville, I 
went to school in Gainesville and in Boca Raton, have been in 
Miami for a bit. And I want to thank you. I was also honored to 
serve as your chair of the Visit Florida Board. On those great 
days, the numbers went up and they kept going up. So you got 
it. You always got it and we thank you for that.
    Madam Chair, we appreciate--and by the way, your 
presentation was kind of mine, so you haven't left much for me. 
So it is--I am going to have to cut this down. But Ranking 
Member, can I still call you Governor? We go that that far back 
in traveling together. And distinguished members of this 
subcommittee. You know, we are really excited about a 
subcommittee that starts with the word tourism. I don't think 
that's ever happened in Washington, D.C., so thank you----
    Senator Rosen. Well, so I will just take a point of order 
here. We actually thought, as we were trying to regroup and 
reform committees this session, that we needed a tourism, trade 
and export committee, but more importantly, that we wanted to 
add a verb to that title. So I think we may have the 
distinction of being one of the only committees that has an 
active verb because tourism, trade and export, it needs 
promotion to happen, and that is why we are that committee. So 
thank you.
    Mr. Talbert. Thank you all very much. My name is Bill 
Talbert, William Talbert. Miami Bill, as I am known in the 
industry. I am President and CEO of the Greater Miami 
Convention and Visitors Bureau. Thank you for your leadership 
in addressing the pandemic's devastating economic damage to our 
Nation's hardest hit sector, travel and tourism. It is my honor 
to provide his testimony on reviving international travel and 
tourism and to create and restore jobs.
    With your indulgence, I am going to be reading my comments 
to ensure clarity of the important points presented for your 
consideration. In the interest of brevity, my CV is in the 
written testimony and Congressional record. Throughout my three 
decades of stewarding our destination sales and marketing 
efforts, Greater Miami has consistently posted record numbers. 
Prior to 2020, 24.2 million visitors generated $18 billion of 
economic impact and employed over 145,000 people. Travel was 
our Nation's second largest export, generating $15.8 billion 
non-exportable American jobs and a trade surplus of $51 
billion.
    Tourism is our number one job generator in Greater Miami. 
It was responsible for 38 percent of all State sales taxes 
collected, with international visitors paying a lion's share of 
19 percent. There are critical dollars that directly fund 
transportation, health care, and other vital public services. 
This came to a screeching halt in March 2020. From April 
through December, air travel to Miami dropped 76 percent. Port 
Miami, the cruise capital of the world, shut down 7 million 
passengers, 16 percent of which are international, unable to 
sail. Hotel occupancy dropped dramatically, hospitality jobs 
down dramatically, tourist tax collections funding, much of 
what I have previously mentioned, down over 70 percent.
    Miami is America's gateway, leading the country and the 
percentage of international versus domestic travelers--one-
third are international. With our borders closed to much of the 
world, the impact to our Florida economy and Miami's tourism 
industry is especially staggering. In 1 year, international 
travel dropped 64 percent, from 6.9 million to 2.5 million 
international visitors. Seemingly overnight, Miami 
International Airport, the Nation's third busiest for 
international travel, lost more than two-thirds of its 
passenger traffic.
    More alarmingly, international visitor spending has 
plummeted 70 percent. This is critical as one-third of our 
visitors are international. They are responsible for 50 percent 
of the visitor spending in Miami. How do we fix this? We see a 
light at the end of the tunnel. We are now in a position where 
we can restart international travel and restore jobs without 
compromising safety. We need to act quickly to implement the 
appropriate measures to lift travel restrictions and restore 
demand. We have the right protections to safely restart 
international travel but lack a clear public health benchmarks 
or a definitive timeline to reopen.
    We ask the CDC, Department of Transportation, and Homeland 
Security, and other Federal agencies to come together and 
develop a data-driven, risk-based roadmap to facilitate inbound 
international travel. We need uniform Federal standards that 
can be effectively communicated to international audiences. 
Vaccine rate among U.S. adults rose rapidly each day. As we 
begin to reach a saturation point, vaccinated individuals 
should be allowed to visit the U.S. without having to have 
proof of a negative test.
    Additionally, recently, the need for quarantines has 
effectively been eliminated, as international passengers must 
now provide proof of a negative COVID test within 72 hours of 
departure. We believe the resumption of travel between low risk 
countries can safely resume and the U.S. should be a global 
leader in this restart. We can begin by establishing public 
health corridors between the U.S. and other low risk countries 
such as the UK and Canada.
    The CDC could then use clear benchmarks such as infection 
and vaccination rates to determine when entry restrictions can 
be lifted for other countries. We must allow the cruise 
industry to safely sail again, one of Florida and Miami's most 
important and powerful economic engines. We lost a projected 7 
million passengers, 16 percent international. It is essential 
we restart this critical tourism sector.
    Finally, we must ensure that Brand USA, which promotes the 
U.S. as a destination globally, be fully funded. They will play 
a key role in our recovery and helping revive international 
travel. I am grateful for your leadership and remain hopeful 
that all segments of American travel can very soon be safely 
restarted. The visitor industry depends on it, as do American 
jobs. Thank you very much for listening.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Talbert follows:]

 Prepared Statement of William D. Talbert, III, CDME President & CEO, 
               Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau
    Good afternoon Chairwoman Rosen, Ranking Member Scott, Chairwoman 
Cantwell, Ranking Member Wicker, and distinguished members of the 
Subcommittee. I thank you for your leadership in addressing the 
pandemic's devastating economic damage, specifically to our Nation's 
hardest hit sector, travel and tourism.
    I would also like to thank U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary 
Gina Raimondo for her recent comments expressing the Administration's 
commitment to the recovery of the U.S. travel and tourism industry. 
This is a welcome and positive sign as we work to restart all sectors 
of travel.
    My name is William D. Talbert, III--Miami Bill as I'm known in the 
industry--and I am President & CEO of the Greater Miami Convention & 
Visitors Bureau.
    It is my honor and privilege to provide testimony on Reviving 
International Travel & Tourism to Create & Restore Jobs.
    With your indulgence, I'll be reading my comments to ensure clarity 
of the important points presented for your consideration. In the 
interest of brevity, I'll also limit my CV to my written testimony and 
congressional record.
    I represent all sectors of the hospitality industry--our 1,100-
member organization includes airports, airlines, hotels, cruise lines, 
transportation, attractions, restaurants--and prior to the pandemic, 
the nearly 145,000 jobs our industry represents in Greater Miami.
    Among the many industry, business and civic organizations I have 
served--and specific to this discussion--I was on the U.S. Department 
of Commerce's Travel & Tourism Advisory Board--named by both previous 
Republican and Democratic Administrations--and in leadership capacities 
with the U.S. Travel Association, Destinations International, Brand USA 
and Visit Florida, where I worked hand-in-hand with then-Governor Scott 
to protect and grow our state's primary economic generator--travel and 
tourism.
    I also assisted with the passage of the United States Travel 
Promotion Act in 2009, helping establish Brand USA, our Nation's first 
public-private partnership promoting the U.S. as a premier destination 
globally.
    I'm well-known for my mantra--Jobs Jobs Jobs--and I work daily to 
build consensus locally, statewide and federally on behalf of the 
visitor industry, always emphasizing the critical role tourism plays in 
creating jobs, and our Nation's economic health.
    Our industry has faced significant challenges throughout my 
career--9/11, natural disasters, fluctuating economies, a global 
recession and endemic health hazards. Each time, through deft crisis 
management and recovery efforts, we have been able to successfully 
guide the safe return of business, restore consumer confidence and 
drive customer demand.
    Never before though has the challenge been greater than this one--
COVID-19. Yet we are now leading the world in successfully addressing 
the pandemic's devastation and I am confident our resilient industry 
will once again spur our Nation's economic recovery.
    Throughout my three decades stewarding our destination's sales and 
marketing efforts, Greater Miami has consistently posted record-
breaking numbers. Prior to 2020, 24.2 million visitors generated an $18 
billion economic impact and employed nearly 145,000. Travel was our 
Nation's second largest export, generating 15.8 million non-exportable 
American jobs and a trade surplus of $51 billion.
    Tourism was our #1 job creator. In Greater Miami, 167 visitors = 1 
tourism job. It was also responsible for 38 percent of all state sales 
taxes collected, with international visitors paying the lion's share--
19 percent. These are critical dollars that directly fund 
transportation and healthcare services, also helping pay for schools, 
public safety, environmental and infrastructure projects, local arts 
and culture, and programs to combat homelessness and domestic violence.
    This all came to a screeching halt in March of 2020. From April 
through December, air travel dropped 76 percent. PortMiami, the Cruise 
Capital of the World, shut down. Seven million passengers, 16 percent 
international, unable to sail. One of Miami and Florida's most powerful 
economic engines, PortMiami contributes $43 billion to the economy and 
generates 334,500 direct and indirect jobs.
    Hotel occupancy down dramatically. Hospitality jobs down 
dramatically. Tourist tax collections, funding much of what I've 
previously mentioned--down almost 70 percent. Throughout the country, 
5.6 million hospitality jobs were lost--65 percent of all jobs lost in 
the US.
    Miami is America's gateway, leading the country in percentage of 
international vs domestic travelers--one-third are international.
    With our borders closed to much of the world, the impact to our 
Florida economy and Miami's tourism industry is especially staggering.
    In one year, international travel dropped 64 percent--from 6.9 to 
2.5 million visitors. Seemingly overnight, Miami International 
Airport--the nation's 3rd busiest for international travel--lost more 
than two-thirds of its passenger traffic.
    More alarmingly, international visitor spending has plummeted 70 
percent. This is critical as, while one-third of our visitors are 
international, they're responsible for 50 percent of spending.
    How do we fix this? We see light at the end of the tunnel.
    We're now in a position where we can restart international travel 
and restore jobs without compromising safety.
    We need to act quickly to implement the appropriate measures to 
lift travel restrictions and restore demand.

   We have the right protections to safely restart 
        international travel, but lack clear public health benchmarks 
        or a definitive timeline to reopen. We ask that the CDC, 
        Departments of Transportation and Homeland Security, and other 
        agencies come together to develop a data-driven, risk-based 
        roadmap to facilitate inbound international travel. We need 
        uniform Federal standards that can be effectively communicated 
        to international audiences.

   The vaccination rate among U.S. adults grows rapidly each 
        day. As we begin to reach a saturation point, vaccinated 
        individuals should be allowed to visit the U.S. without having 
        to have proof of a negative COVID test. Additionally, the need 
        for quarantines has been effectively eliminated, as 
        international passengers must now provide proof of a negative 
        COVID 19 test within 72 hours of departure.

   We believe the resumption of travel between low-risk 
        countries can safely resume, and the U.S. should be a global 
        leader in this restart. We can begin by establishing ``public 
        health corridors'' between the U.S. and other low-risk 
        countries such as the U.K and Canada. The CDC could then use 
        clear benchmarks, such as infection and vaccination rates, to 
        determine when entry restrictions can be lifted for other 
        countries.

   We must allow the cruise industry to safely sail again. One 
        of Florida and Miami's most powerful economic engines, we lost 
        a projected 7 million passengers, 16 percent international. 
        It's essential we restart this critical tourism sector.

   Finally, we must ensure that Brand USA, which promotes the 
        U.S. as a destination globally, be fully funded. They will play 
        a key role in our recovery and helping revive international 
        travel.

    I am grateful for your leadership and remain hopeful that all 
segments of America's travel industry can very soon be safely 
restarted. The visitor industry depends on it, as do thousands of 
American jobs.

    Senator Rosen. Well, thank you, Mr. Talbert, and thank you 
for that great segway to my next introduction of Christopher 
Thompson, President and CEO of Brand USA, the Nation's public 
private partnership, which is dedicated to increasing 
international visitation to the United States through marketing 
and promotional efforts. Mr. Thompson has over 30 years of 
experience in the travel and tourism industry, and under his 
leadership, Brand USA has nearly tripled its partnership 
network and more than doubled its partner contribution program 
offerings. Mr. Thompson, you are now recognized for your 
opening statement.

STATEMENT OF CHRISTOPHER L. THOMPSON, PRESIDENT AND CEO, BRAND 
                              USA

    Mr. Thompson. Thank you, Madam Chairman, Ranking Member 
Scott, members of the Committee. Thank you for holding this 
very important hearing. Last, I also like to thank Senator 
Blunt, Senator Klobuchar for their leadership of the Travel and 
Tourism Caucus in the chamber. It is a privilege to be here 
representing our Nation's destination marketing organization, 
Brand USA. Our mission is to increase international visitation 
and spend to fuel our Nation's economy and enhance the image of 
the USA worldwide.
    As a public, private partnership, we work with the travel 
industry and the Federal Government to inspire the world to 
explore our diverse destinations, our diverse experiences, and 
our diverse people, and to communicate the entry and visa 
policy. Our work provides vital marketing channels which 
amplify the U.S. travel industry's efforts to reach potential 
visitors and connect with international sales networks and 
media around the globe. Since 2013, our activities have 
generated 7.7 million incremental visitors, $25.5 billion in 
incremental spending, $37 billion in taxes, and supported over 
45,000 jobs per year.
    We return $26 for every $1 of marketing that we invest in 
the market. These benefits accrue to rural and urban 
communities alike and support employment well beyond the travel 
and tourism sector. Our reports to Congress for Fiscal Years 
2019 and 2020, which are submitted as part of the record, are 
the best reference for the detailed information on our 
activities and our results. The pandemic has had a devastating 
effect on travel and tourism in general, and especially on 
those communities and those businesses and individuals reliant 
on international visitor numbers, spending. Inbound 
international travel has historically been our Nation's number 
two export, and it has been our top services export. In 2019, 
travel exports were $233 billion, delivering $51 billion in 
trade surplus, directly supporting 1.2 million jobs.
    But in 2020, even including the strong performance in the 
first quarter, international travelers fell by 76 percent as 
you promoted, chair. Travel exports plummeted by 64 percent to 
just $83 billion, a year over year loss of $150 billion. 
Without a recovery effort, travel exports will continue to 
fall, and lost jobs will not return. Brand USA has developed a 
comprehensive approach to help rebuild consumer confidence and 
stimulate demand.
    A national campaign is critical because of how slowly 
international segment will recover in the years ahead, and 
because of how little and how--both our destinations and our 
brands will be able to invest in international marketing 
compared to what they are having to do for the local economy. 
Unfortunately, the pandemic has disrupted the funding model 
established by the Travel Promotion Act, and it is jeopardizing 
our efforts to be as helpful as we have been in the past. Brand 
USA is funded by contributions from non-Federal sources and 
matched by funds from the ESTA fees paid by international 
travelers during the prior Fiscal Year. We receive a dollar for 
dollar match up to $100 million for each dollar of contributed 
cash or in-kind that clears the verification process from the 
U.S. Department of Commerce. Three factors have challenged our 
funding model.
    First, ESTA collections are stagnant, resulting in only $62 
million being available to us for the current Fiscal Year, and 
maybe as little as $10 million in the next Fiscal Year. Second, 
Brand USA partner base, and the travel industry more broadly, 
continue to face significant hurdles to be able to reach pre-
COVID levels of contributions to Brand USA.
    And third, the Brand USA Extension Act of 2019 raised the 
minimum proportion of cash contributions from 30 to 50 percent, 
which is a major hurdle for our cash strapped industry partners 
to meet the contributions they have done historically. These 
are structural impediments only Congress can solve. That is why 
the Travel and Tourism Advisory Council recommended an 
extraordinary $250 million appropriation to Brand USA, outside 
the normal matching process, to provide the resources to hasten 
the international travel recovery. The TTAB also recommended 
temporary suspension of the 50/50 cash to in-kind ratio for 
greater maximum matching flexibility.
    As you have stated, Oxford Economics estimates that the 
appropriation would lead to more than 1.7 million visitors who 
could collectively spend $4.5 billion, generating over $700 
million in taxes and 40,000 new jobs. It would allow us, as the 
United States, to help return the levels of arrivals and 
spending to 2023 levels as opposed to 2024 levels, a year 
earlier than the forecast. These positive results will go 
unrealized without action from Congress.
    Fiscal 2020 will see historic growth rates in returns to 
global travel as the world begins to move again. How our 
country responds will determine the trajectory of our sector's 
recovery and many other parts of the economy. The challenges I 
have outlined must be addressed now in order for us to produce 
and to launch campaigns in time to channel this demand to the 
United States when the time is right. Thank you again, Madam 
Chair, for the opportunity to testify. I look forward to 
answering any questions anybody might have.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Thompson follows:]

   Prepared Statement of Christopher L. Thompson, President and CEO, 
                               Brand USA
INTRODUCTION
    Chairwoman Rosen, Ranking Member Scott, and Members of the 
Subcommittee:

    Thank you for holding this important hearing. It's a privilege to 
be here on behalf of Brand USA, the destination marketing organization 
(DMO) for the United States.
    This hearing is timely because the pandemic has had a devastating 
effect on travel and tourism in general and especially on communities, 
businesses, and employees that rely on spending by international 
visitors. Inbound international travel has historically been the 
country's number two export and its top services export. In 2019, 
travel exports were $233 billion, delivering a $51 billion trade 
surplus and directly supporting 1.2 million jobs. But from March 
through the end of 2020, overall international arrivals fell by 91 
percent and overseas visitation was down a staggering 96 percent 
compared to the same period a year earlier. Travel exports plummeted by 
64 percent to just $83 billion--a year-over-year loss of $150 billion. 
Without a concerted recovery effort, travel exports will continue to 
fall and lost jobs will be slow to come back--or may not come back at 
all.
    Brand USA was created to help address problems like this. Our 
mission is to increase international visitation and spend to fuel our 
Nation's economy and enhance the image of the USA worldwide. As a 
public-private partnership, we work with the travel industry and 
Federal government to inspire people from around the world to explore 
and enjoy our diverse destinations and experiences and to communicate 
visa and entry policies. We also influence tour operators and travel 
agents to help them improve their storytelling about U.S. destinations, 
expand the packages they offer, and stoke demand for travel to the 
United States. Our work also provides vital marketing infrastructure 
that improves and amplifies the U.S. travel industry's own efforts to 
reach potential visitors and connect with international sales networks 
and media.
    Since 2013 these activities have generated 7.7 million incremental 
visitors; $25.5 billion in incremental spending; $56 billion in total 
economic output; $7.3 billion in federal, state, and local taxes; and 
support for over 45,000 jobs per year. We return $26 to the U.S. 
economy for every dollar we spend on marketing. These benefits accrue 
to rural and urban communities alike and grow the economy beyond the 
travel sector. In fact, nearly half of the Brand USA-generated economic 
output and jobs accrue to non-travel and tourism industries such as 
manufacturing, finance, insurance, and retail.
    Unfortunately, the economic fallout from the pandemic has disrupted 
the funding model established by the Travel Promotion Act and 
jeopardized our ability to help restart international travel and 
continue in our vital mission to create and restore American jobs.
NAVIGATING THE PANDEMIC \1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Brand USA's annual reports to Congress for FY 2019 and FY 2020, 
submitted for the record, provide a comprehensive overview of how we 
market the USA and measure success. These documents include detailed 
descriptions of the methods, rationales, and tactics we employ to drive 
incremental visitation and spend.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Impact on the travel and tourism industry
    The past 15 months have been a stark reminder of the important role 
the travel sector plays in the vitality of economies at the local, 
state, and national levels. Towns and cities have seen their hotels, 
restaurants, attractions, and small businesses suffer job losses that 
have impacted families and communities.
    Travel and tourism have long been a major driver of our Nation's 
economy. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the industry 
accounted for 2.9 percent of gross domestic product and provided 9.2 
million jobs in the United States in 2019. The international segment is 
particularly valuable because on average international visitors spend 
more time and money, and visit more places, than domestic travelers. 
U.S. travel and tourism exports were $233.5 billion in 2019, accounting 
for 9 percent of all U.S. exports and 27 percent of services exports 
and furnishing a $51 billion trade surplus.
    COVID-19 brought international travel to a halt. Overall arrivals 
dropped 91 percent, and overseas visitation fell by a staggering 96 
percent from March 2020 through the end of the year compared to the 
same period in 2019. Over the course of the entire year, including the 
strong first quarter, international arrivals fell by 76 percent and 
travel exports plummeted by 64 percent to just $83 billion. This caused 
the U.S. travel trade surplus to fall by 31 percent to $35 billion.
    The catastrophic drop in travel has had a devastating impact on the 
industry. According to Oxford Economics, cumulative U.S. travel and 
tourism losses are now approaching $600 billion after contracting 42 
percent in 2020. This lost spending resulted in a cascading loss in tax 
receipts of $64 billion across the federal, state, and local levels 
last year. And the leisure and hospitality sector alone lost 19 percent 
of its jobs and accounted for 37 percent of all jobs lost during the 
pandemic.
    In addition, from March through the end of 2020, international 
inbound travel fell by 91 percent and overseas visitation was down a 
staggering 96 percent compared to the same period in 2019. Over the 
course of the entire year, including the strong first quarter, 
international arrivals fell by 76 percent and travel exports plummeted 
by 64 percent to just $83 billion. This caused the U.S. travel trade 
surplus to fall by 31 percent to $35 billion.
    The travel industry, and in particular international travel, will 
play a major role in our country's economic recovery, but it will 
involve building back from a deep hole.
Brand USA's response
    Brand USA responded to the pandemic by pivoting to a ``state of 
readiness'' framework to conserve resources while focusing on 
foundational activities that only the national DMO can do.
    We launched Brand USA Global Marketplace, a virtual B2B platform 
that keeps U.S. destinations and travel suppliers connected with global 
networks of tour operators, travel agents, airlines, and media. This 
platform has played an essential role for many stakeholders that scaled 
back their international presence, and it will continue to be an 
important tool in the future. Market-specific programming has helped 
put the United States in a competitive position for recovery once 
travel resumes at scale.
    One of Brand USA's unique value propositions is the ability to 
conduct consumer and market research and produce critical analysis and 
insights at the international level. As COVID-19 swept the globe and 
scrambled attitudes toward travel as well as destination marketing 
budgets, stakeholders looked to Brand USA for overall guidance and 
tactical questions about everything from travel policies to cooperative 
marketing plans. We increased our sharing of research to help navigate 
these waters.
    Brand USA suspended paid media marketing in March 2020, but kept 
the drumbeat of inspiration alive through organic communications 
channels. For example, as travel came to a standstill, Brand USA 
developed novel ways to engage with audiences on social media, created 
a dialogue with potential visitors, and embarked on a virtual, cross-
country road trip to sustain interest in destinations across the USA. 
With the help of 7.5 million followers across its social channels, 
Brand USA leveraged user-generated content, influencers, and local 
destination partners to virtually visit all 50 states, five 
territories, and Washington, D.C., showcasing the possibilities and 
welcoming nature of the USA. And though we paused production for GoUSA 
TV, we increased distribution of existing content through partner 
platforms such as Samsung Plus UK and AirBnB Online Experiences. This 
collaboration provided needed programming for the partner companies, 
delivered compelling content to consumers, and extended Brand USA's 
reach.
    Brand USA remained focused on keeping the USA top-of-mind among the 
global travel community. To engage the many travel agents and tour 
operators who were stuck at home with their businesses disrupted, we 
leaned into digital tools to keep them inspired and knowledgeable about 
the USA. We accelerated participation in the USA Discovery Program, 
Brand USA's award-winning online travel agent training program. We also 
transformed in-person education programs that we carry out across all 
markets during a typical year. By using informative and inspiring 
webinars designed for the travel trade community, we dramatically 
expanded the number of travel agents and tour operators reached.
    Finally, public relations proved to be an effective strategy--and 
one that highlighted the need to be nimble and adaptable in the face of 
unforeseen developments. We found innovative ways to inspire travel 
dreamers to keep the USA top-of-mind when it's safe to travel, 
including online events, trade programs, strategic pitches, 
partnerships, and storytelling assets (United Stories and GoUSA TV).
Gating criteria
    Throughout the pandemic, Brand USA has been tracking a set of 
gating criteria to determine when conditions are appropriate to 
transition from a state of readiness into a proactive recovery 
campaign. These criteria include source market conditions such as air 
service, entry restrictions and consumer sentiment and behavior; as 
well as home market conditions like viral spread, openness of 
destinations and attractions, and financial position. These criteria 
are tracked through a COVID-19 dashboard that Brand USA created and is 
actively sharing with industry stakeholders to help inform their own 
decision-making process.
Planning for recovery
    As the world eyes the reopening of travel, our competitors will 
actively seek to regain share of international travelers in what is 
expected to be a year of explosive growth. In fact, Oxford Economics 
forecasts the United States to lag other regions of the world in 
returning to 2019 levels of visitation because of the relatively high 
proportion of long-haul arrivals in our total inbound visitor mix and 
due to the timing of airlines restoring on a global basis all at once. 
With international travel expected to recover more slowly than 
domestic, U.S. destinations and companies will focus on that market and 
invest fewer resources in international markets over the next couple 
years. A campaign to market the entire USA as a destination during this 
critical period is essential to rebuilding our economy.
    Brand USA has developed a comprehensive approach to help rebuild 
traveler confidence and stimulate demand. The recovery campaign will 
focus on three sequential tasks to jumpstart international travel and 
help relieve some of the financial shortfalls in the industry. First, 
rebuild traveler confidence by demonstrating the United States is ready 
to receive them. Second, welcome the world back through an inspiring 
creative approach that evokes the possibility awaiting in a trip to the 
USA. Third, entice and convert the inspiration and pent-up demand into 
booking a trip.
    Unfortunately, the pandemic has disrupted the funding model 
established by the Travel Promotion Act, placing these plans at risk.
DISRUPTION OF THE FUNDING MODEL
    Brand USA is funded by contributions from non-federal sources, such 
as state tourism offices and travel brands, and matching funds from 
ESTA fees paid by visa waiver travelers during the prior Fiscal Year. 
We receive a dollar in matching funds--up to $100 million per year--for 
each dollar of contributed cash or in-kind that clears the verification 
process at the Department of Commerce.
    Nearly a decade into our mission, Brand USA has refined our value 
proposition and accumulated sufficient carryforward to smooth over cash 
flow challenges in each new Fiscal Year. Consistent access to funding 
is critical to making the kind of capital-intensive investments in 
marketing infrastructure that the domestic travel and tourism industry 
rely upon while also creating and launching robust, integrated global 
advertising campaigns.
    Three factors have challenged this model. First, ESTA collections 
are stagnant, resulting in only $62 million in available matching funds 
this year and potentially as little as $10 million next year. This 
means that for Fiscal Years 2021 and 2022, the available resources are 
around $128 million short of the amount authorized by Congress. Second, 
Brand USA's partner base and the travel industry more broadly continue 
to face significant hurdles to making pre-COVID levels of 
contributions. Third, the Brand USA Extension Act (2019) raised the 
minimum proportion of cash contributions from 30 percent to 50 percent, 
which is a major hurdle for our cash-strapped industry to meet.
ESTA collections
    The Travel Promotion Fund at Treasury accrued only $62 million from 
ESTA fees in FY 2020. Therefore, FY 2021 is the first year the account 
has not had the full $100 million authorized by the Travel Promotion 
Act. More critically, since ESTA fee collections remain depressed, 
there will be significantly less than $100 million available in FY 
2022--perhaps as little as $10 million. Until ESTA collections ramp up, 
or unless there is extraordinary help from Congress, we will be 
significantly constrained in our ability to bring forward recovery 
campaigns to energize the economy and deliver desperately needed help 
to communities of all shapes and sizes throughout country.
Partner contributions
    The pandemic has had a major effect on the ability of Brand USA 
partners to make their typical level of cash contributions. This 
applies to the private sector, which has seen significant decreases in 
sales, and to city- and state-level DMOs, which are dependent on 
lodging taxes, state appropriations, and other traveler user fees.
    In FY 2020, Brand USA achieved the full $100 million match earlier 
than in any prior year, but cash contributions dried up after mid-
March. What was projected as an additional $23.7 million in cash 
contributions that would have served as carryforward to begin FY 2021 
came in at only $7.98 million. This dynamic has continued through the 
first half of FY 2021 as new cash contributions have slowed to a 
trickle. And though we may see an improvement in contribution figures 
as domestic travel recovers, the priorities for most contributors will 
likely continue to be closer to home--for example, rehiring staff, 
refreshing infrastructure, retaining vendors, and promotional efforts 
for domestic travel and convention sales.
New cash floor
    The Brand USA Extension Act, signed into law in December 2019, 
reauthorized Brand USA's access to ESTA fee-based matching funds 
through FY 2027. However, the bill also raised the floor for the 
minimum required proportion of cash-to-in-kind from 30 percent to 50 
percent beginning in FY 2021. In a normal year, Brand USA now must 
submit $50 million in cash contributions to receive the full $100 
million match. In FY 2021, Brand USA will need to collect a minimum of 
$31 million in cash contributions and a maximum of $31 million in in-
kind contributions to receive the full $62 million in available match 
(minus sequestration).
    A 66 percent increase in the proportion of cash contributions is a 
challenge in the best of times. The new floor is an acute problem in 
the current year because of the dearth of carryforward from FY 2020 and 
the continued stagnation of contributions. As in the early days of 
Brand USA, we anticipate a ramp-up period of one or two years to accrue 
sufficient momentum to smooth over cash flow issues and ensure we 
maximize the available matching funds each fiscal year.
    The combination of these factors means that funds will not be 
available to promote international travel and support jobs at the time 
it is most needed. Due to effective budget management through the 
pandemic, we have sufficient cash on-hand to either maintain business 
continuity until revenue streams recover in FY 2023 or to bring forward 
the recovery campaign to help boost the economy. But we cannot do both.
WHAT CONGRESS CAN DO
    These are structural impediments only Congress can solve. That's 
why the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board recently recommended an 
extraordinary $250 million appropriation to Brand USA, outside the 
matching process, to provide the resources to hasten the international 
travel recovery. The TTAB also recommended temporary suspension of the 
50:50 cash-to-in-kind ratio for greater matching flexibility.
    Oxford Economics estimates that such an appropriation would lead to 
more than 1.7 million more visitors who would spend $4.5 billion, 
generating nearly $700 million in Federal taxes and supporting more 
than 40,000 new jobs. It would also allow the United States to return 
to 2019 levels of arrivals and spending in 2024 instead of the current 
forecast of 2025. These positive results would go unrealized without 
action from Congress.
    Time is of the essence. Key source markets that account for a 
significant portion of inbound travel to the USA are progressing toward 
our gating criteria targets. And we are rapidly approaching domestic 
readiness to receive these visitors. Brand USA is urgently making 
preparations to launch a recovery effort, but we cannot initiate the 
robust campaign we envision, and know is necessary, without greater 
certainty that funds will be available to sustain it.
    Fiscal Year 2022 will see historic growth rates in global travel as 
the world begins to move again. We have a window of opportunity to 
shape the trajectory of our sector's recovery and support recovery in 
many other parts of the economy, too. The challenges I've outlined must 
be addressed now in order to produce and launch campaigns in time to 
channel this nascent demand to the United States, supporting tens of 
thousands of jobs in communities around the country.
    Thank you again for the opportunity to testify. I look forward to 
your questions.

    Senator Rosen. Well, thank you, Mr. Thompson. And I guess 
we are going to go right into questions here. And I am going to 
start by talking a little bit about McCarran International 
Airport, because it is the gateway to Nevada's tourism driven 
economy and is at normal times one of the busiest airports in 
the country in the world. So Ms. Vassiliadis, as you well know, 
before the outbreak of the pandemic, McCarran was on track to 
surpass its previous record of 51.5 million passengers in 2019, 
with traffic up more than 6 percent in the first 2 months of 
2020.
    This momentum, of course, as a result of COVID for the 
first time since the assassination of President Kennedy in 
1963, the Las Vegas Strip totally shut down. It brought air 
travel to a virtual halt. International travel to Las Vegas hit 
especially hard, with just over 780,000 international travelers 
passing through McCarran in all of 2020, compared to about 3.8 
million passengers in 2019.
    So, Ms. Vassiliadis, how has a depressed international 
travel really impacted America's airports in general would you 
say, including McCarran? And what about the airport work force, 
the small businesses that make up our concessionaires, you 
know, our small businesses really the backbone of a lot of our 
economy?
    Ms. Vassiliadis. Thank you, Senator. I think you hit it 
right on the head. It has such a--the tentacles of this has 
such a huge effect. You know, McCarran International Airport 
employs 16,000 people directly, but more importantly, 
indirectly and directly we support 25 percent of all the jobs 
in Southern Nevada. So that, of course, did take a big toll on 
all the companies that do service the airlines, the airport, 
and the concessionaires, you know, by furloughs and just some 
of the smaller companies not being able to make it through.
    You know, we have our international benefit is $6.2 
billion. And what is really important is for our town, the per 
capita spend for the international visitor is almost double 
from that of the domestic. Domestic is very nice. It is $700 
and I think $75 per, but our international is, you know, almost 
$1,500 per visitor. So that is the stimulation that we 
absolutely need to have back, you know, not only, of course, 
for the airport, but for all of the companies in Southern 
Nevada.
    Senator Rosen. Yes, well those 17,000 jobs you support, 
support more than 17,000 families and it goes on and on. But I 
would like to move now toward international travel promotion 
because, of course, the American Rescue Plan Act set aside $750 
million in grants to assist states and communities that have 
had jobs and GDP losses in travel, tourism, and the outdoor 
recreation sectors. Congress allocated these funds, part of an 
effort spearheaded by my colleague from Nevada, Senator Cortez 
Masto, because we recognize that the pandemic 
disproportionately impacted states like Florida, Alaska, 
Nevada, Missouri--we have a Senator Blunt here in the room. And 
their communities really dependent on travel and tourism.
    In April, I joined Senators Cortez Masto and Klobuchar and 
others in sending a letter to Secretary--Commerce Secretary 
Raimondo requesting that the Department not only disperse these 
funds expeditiously and responsibly, but also to make clear 
that tourism, marketing, and promotion activities are eligible 
for such funds so that we can increase safe travel that can 
drive the economy. So, Mr. Thompson, you spoke about this in 
your opening statement. These direct funds to communities will 
supplement some of the international travel promotion work that 
Brand USA does, but they won't go to every city and state in 
need. And that is where you come in.
    And so I am worried that with your funding tied to 
international travel fees that are already down at Brand USA, 
you just might not have the resources to support its mission 
and enhance the efforts we really need coming out of COVID. So 
talk to me about what you need. Are you financially equipped to 
help the U.S. recover from the worst international tourism 
drought in modern history? If you are not, what do you need us 
to do to help?
    Mr. Thompson. Yes, ma'am. Chairwoman Rosen, you are exactly 
right. This pandemic brought our industry to its knees and 
disproportionately affected the hospitality industry. You know, 
we often talk about, Mr. Talbert and I talk about the things 
that make the U.S. the U.S. is what we use to attract people to 
the USA and to Miami. But it is actually the fabric of our 
communities, and I think this pandemic and its impact on our 
industry has brought that to the forefront. I think our 
industry lost nearly 20 percent of its overall jobs, and that 
represented nearly a third of all the jobs in the industry that 
were lost.
    So many of our partners, our most invested and engaged 
partners are DMOs at the local level. Their funding source has 
been bed taxes and those were pretty much cutoff. So although 
it hit them right away, it was a delayed reaction to us because 
our funding source is dependent on international visitation, 
and it is dependent on what is collected in the year prior.
    When we got into this current Fiscal Year, there was not 
$100 million for us to match. As we are coming out of this 
pandemic, as the domestic travel economy has come back probably 
quicker than anybody had anticipated, a lot of what is 
returning our travel and tourism industry to what it needs to 
be in order to reach the levels in the past is great and that 
domestic tourism has to come back before we can do our 
international tourism, but we are going to be ill prepared to 
be able to respond when the time is right. So our challenge is 
the funding source. Our challenge is lack of funds in that 
source. And so that is why in working with the Travel and 
Tourism Advisory Board within the Department of Commerce, they 
came up with the recommendation that in the interim, we would 
need some help that is outside of what we would normally need.
    Our funding model--there was nothing wrong with our funding 
model, it just got its knees knocked out from under it. And we 
need a bridge to get us from where we are now so that we will 
be resourced when we have the opportunity, when the time is 
right to start promoting international travel.
    So the measures that we laid out, that they laid out 
actually that I highlighted in my oral testimony and the 
written testimony, were the ones that will be really helpful, 
that will put us in the best position to be able to help the 
industry when we need--when they need it and what they depend 
on us for.
    Senator Rosen. Wonderful, thank you. I would like to 
recognize Ranking Member Scott for his questions.
    Senator Scott. Thank you, Chair Rosen. Bill, can you talk 
about right now we are seeing in Florida significant labor 
shortages in the travel and tourism industry. Can you talk 
about that and what you think is causing it?
    Mr. Talbert. Well, some is you know, we shut down in Miami 
on March 16. We all know the day, that magic day when you all 
went home, and we said it was going to be a few weeks and it 
turned out to be about a whole year. I think it is a 
combination of things. Number one, some folks found other 
opportunities. Number two, you hear maybe they are making more 
money not working than working. And some have gone to different 
industries. And you know what I have said, given this past year 
of the fear we all had, people dying, and this is a pandemic 
and are we going to have a vaccine, the fact that one of the 
biggest problems we have is a labor problem, I think that, you 
know, I think that it is kind of nice. I think we can solve 
that.
    But given what we were facing of not being open and having 
no business, no domestic business, no international business 
and more people out of work, I think that is something--some 
companies we see are raising the salaries. And, you know, we 
have got a very robust economy. We have built hotels, we have 
added air service. Miami's economy has grown, you know, and 
people are moving from other places I have heard. And they are 
coming to Miami and Florida. But it is something that the 
industry is looking at and going to solve. But it is better 
than that alternative that was out there that we were facing.
    Senator Scott. Thank you, Bill. Chris, can you talk about 
what you said, for every $1 that is invested in Brand USA you 
get $26 back. Can you explain how that works?
    Mr. Thompson. Yes, sir. So as we deploy our marketing 
channels around the world, we are influencing intent to travel. 
And then that intent converts to actual bookings. And through 
our partnership with Oxford Economics, they are able to look 
across all of our marketing channels, all the points that we 
touch in that process. We don't, I don't think claim to say 
that we are the savior to international marketing for the 
United States.
    But we do say that the ways that we touch and influence 
travel around the world from 11 major markets directed to the 
consumer are probably a total of 40 plus markets in some way 
really contribute to what is going on. And that direct 
investment, that direct return from those bookings and then how 
it ripples through the economy is what determines that $26 to 
$1 investment
    Senator Scott. And that $26 to $1 is $26 that we get back 
in the Federal treasury?
    Mr. Thompson. Yes, sir.
    Senator Scott. So have you ever proposed anything that 
would tie your funding? I mean, if you got $200 million of 
funding, you could--you would feel comfortable being 
responsible for getting this 26 times that money back.
    Mr. Thompson. Senator, if we were given an opportunity to 
be given resources tied to our production, I would welcome that 
challenge.
    Senator Scott. We think the numbers we had in Visit Florida 
was 5 to 1, right? Visit Florida, we always used, I think, 5 to 
1, right?
    Mr. Thompson. I think the spending on the international 
travel is so much larger and that is why the numbers get to be 
larger.
    Senator Scott. It is very difficult to get the legislature 
to ever fund as much as we would like. We got up to $76 million 
a year. But would be interesting if we could come up with a way 
that we funded it and if you guys--and we could see the dollars 
coming back because it would be something I think all three of 
us would do if we could figure out how to do it because it 
impacts all of our states, so----
    Mr. Thompson. Happy to help inform that conversation.
    Senator Scott. So I would love to do it if we can figure 
out how to do it. So for Ms. Vassiliadis, is that close?
    Ms. Vassiliadis. Yes. You said it very well.
    Senator Scott. I said it right after you. It is easier. 
Vassiliadis. So, what have you done to make people feel more 
comfortable? You know, I have proposed a few bills to try to 
get our airports to do more, to make people feel comfortable to 
fly into airports. You got the same issue because we are 
relying in Miami, in Orlando and international traffic. And so 
you got you got the same issue. What are you doing to get 
people to feel more comfortable to fly in?
    Ms. Vassiliadis. Well, being the first and last look of Las 
Vegas, we--my staff quickly came up with a campaign. We call it 
LAS All In, and it is messaging all the different layers from 
disinfecting to communicating, especially at the very beginning 
of it, what this state, and since states were, had some 
different directives and mandates, what was required in this 
state. So it was a just a several layer approach of letting our 
passenger, you know, as well as our employees that were there--
you know, we are essential, airports were essential service. We 
had to stay open every day. And I wanted to make sure that our 
employees felt comfortable from the disinfecting. Again, all 
the messaging. Of course, we had Ambassadors going out and 
reminding everybody of the social distancing. We took down 
every other chair, made sure we had that six feet, you know.
    We did mark it at baggage claim. And one thing that we have 
discovered over and over again, whether it is 9/11, the 
recession, no matter what, people want Vegas. So we always 
message it out Vegas style. And when the mask mandate came up, 
of course, what did we have? We had showgirls handing out masks 
out in baggage claim. And it was a huge success. And we did all 
of this for consumer confidence. You know, we know that along 
with the airlines and everything that they are doing, it is one 
experience, and we worked very closely with our airlines to get 
that consumer confidence, that travel is going to be okay. It 
is going to be just as safe as it is going to the grocery store 
or a big box store or, you know, anything else where there 
tends to be big clusters.
    You know, be smart, but let them know. So messaging went 
out everywhere. Our employees had fun t-shirts to wear masks. 
And we are at the point now where we know we have to move 
forward and have that flexibility, which is, of course, what I 
asked for to you know--I mean, number one, we have to regain 
that--our UK market. That is the United States' number one 
market as well as Las Vegas. And so having this consumer 
confidence and being that first part of it and having airlines 
work with airports in each part of the experience, TSA, so that 
flying customer does feel confident and will not only take one 
trip but take more than one.
    Senator Scott. Thank you. Thank you, Chair Rosen.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you. Next, I would like to recognize 
Senator Blunt.

                 STATEMENT OF HON. ROY BLUNT, 
                   U.S. SENATOR FROM MISSOURI

    Senator Blunt. Thank you, Chairman. Thanks for holding this 
hearing. Thanks for naming the committee in such an appropriate 
way and thanks for putting this great panel together. As Mr. 
Thompson pointed out on the return from foreign travelers, they 
just come--they stay longer, and they spend more money than the 
individual American tourists for lots of reasons.
    And, you know, the other thing is they almost always like 
us better when they leave. Even if they thought they were going 
to like us a lot, they like us more than they thought. So this 
is--the investment in travel is also a great investment in 
diplomacy as well, particularly that investment in foreign 
travel. Chris, in the money, I think you said this year, the 
visa waiver fee, produced about $66 billion?
    Mr. Thompson. Yes, sir. $62 million.
    Senator Blunt. Million. I mean. I am sorry. Have we been 
dealing in such big numbers here? I get my millions and my 
billions confused occasionally, but everybody else is too or at 
least they must be based on the amount of money we are talking 
about spending on other things. Of the $62 million, were you 
able to match that?
    Mr. Thompson. So, that is the biggest challenge we have at 
the moment. Our partners that bring forward the cash and in-
kind matches, particularly the cash side, and with the 50/50 
requirement, in order to be able to match income, we have to 
have also have a dollar match in cash. And so we are very 
challenged at the moment. We are way behind where we would 
normally be.
    Our board is meeting tomorrow, and I am bringing a plan 
forward to tell them that we are going to do our best to match 
that $62. But normally, as you well know, there is $100 in 
there for us to be able to match and we have never not matched 
it. So this would be the first year and again, no fault of our 
business model. I don't think any fault of our partners. It is 
just what the pandemic has done to us.
    Senator Blunt. Well, I am sure you will keep us informed. 
And I would like to personally be kept informed of how we are 
doing on matching the money available this year. And----
    Mr. Thompson. Yes, sir. And the real part is that next 
year, they are projecting there may only be $10 million.
    Senator Blunt. Right. Now, one thing we ought to think 
about, I would say to my colleagues on the panel, you know, 
part of what happened when we set this up and I sponsored the 
original legislation, was that the amount over $100 million was 
going to go into general revenue. That has never happened. So 
there is $433 million in an account that has never been 
transferred out, the travel----
    Mr. Thompson. From the travel promotion fund----
    Senator Blunt. Exactly, in the travel promotion fund 
account. That is something we should look at. I will be 
interested to see this year how close we get to matching the 
$66 million. I would think my guess is that next year people 
will be eager to match, if we can get the help we need. And I 
know you were asked that question about just getting the help 
that we need right now to run the facilities that need to be 
run. I mentioned at our leadership press conference earlier, 
Pete Herschend, who has Silver Dollar City and other tourist 
locations around the country, who actually was the first person 
that mentioned to me that we were not competing in this area 
around the world where all kinds of other countries were 
advertising here, we weren't advertising there, and we began to 
look for a funding source.
    But he told me 1 day last week if they could hire 150 
people the next morning if they could just find 150 people to 
hire. I was talking to another person in St. Louis who runs a 
series of a number of hotels, he said they now have the 
customers, they just don't have the people to get the rooms 
ready. Said, we could fill more rooms if we had more people to 
clean the rooms, and the other things that need to happen at 
the hotel. So that is a clear shortage right now as well. I 
think you have asked--have you seen this same problem?
    Mr. Talbert. Yes, but Senator, I want to announce breaking 
news here. Miami has match money for you, Chris.
    Mr. Thompson. Yes, sir.
    Mr. Talbert. And also that is number one, we have the match 
money for one of the international gateways into the U.S. You 
have got to come to and through us to get everywhere else. But 
also, I got to say, as a born and raised in Florida and in 
hospitality and near a beach, the fact that there is not 
funding for this and every place in the world, other countries 
are doing this, the money is available, I am just shocked that 
this can't happen. And there must be a reason for it to unleash 
the money. But we have got match money, Chris.
    Mr. Thompson. Good. Thank you, sir.
    Mr. Talbert. And we are ready to start tomorrow. We have 
had a strong relationship for the years. We are the number one, 
two, or three international gateway. Remember, got to come to 
and through us, so. But thank you for listening.
    Senator Blunt. And on the getting help--that is a problem?
    Mr. Talbert. It is--you know, we had that question earlier 
and we do have some hotels in Florida that aren't open because 
they can't get the staff. And you see and they are big--we are 
working on that. But once again, I think given the problem we 
had a year ago, this is you know, this is manageable. Year ago, 
we didn't know that could be managed. People were dying. This 
is about can we find people to work? And we love to have that 
problem all day long. We are going to solve it and it is 
solvable. But thank you for asking.
    Senator Blunt. And direct marketing organizations. I think 
early on we didn't properly define, but we later were sure to 
get you included in the COVID relief bills. Did you take 
advantage of that?
    Mr. Talbert. We absolutely did. We absolutely did. We have 
somebody that as soon as you pass it, we have a CPA on staff 
that spends all night going through every line, every word.
    Senator Blunt. Exactly. Well, let's start looking 
Chairwoman at that $433 million and see if maybe we could think 
of something to do with it if the Treasury so far has never 
transferred out the account. And I have talked to the Secretary 
of Commerce about this. I think they are doing everything they 
can to work with you within----
    Mr. Thompson. She has been very supportive. Yes, sir.
    Senator Blunt. See if we can't begin to get people thinking 
about visiting us and sooner rather than later. Thank you. 
Thank you, Chair.
    Mr. Thompson. Yes, sir. Thank you.
    Senator Rosen. You know, our teams have our work cut out 
for them after this hearing. Next, I would like to recognize 
via WebEx, Senator Blackburn.

              STATEMENT OF HON. MARSHA BLACKBURN, 
                  U.S. SENATOR FROM TENNESSEE

    Senator Blackburn. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Talbert, I 
want to come right along there with some--behind what Senator 
Blunt was talking about with getting people back in the 
process. And in your testimony, you said we have the right 
protections to safely restart international travel but lack 
clear public health benchmarks or a definitive timeline to 
reopen. Now in Tennessee, this is something that we hear a good 
bit about. So my question to you is, why have CDC, DOT, DHS not 
come up with a road map to facilitate international travel? Why 
have they not come up with the protocols and the pathway for 
this? And could you tell us when these agencies are going to 
come together and develop this plan that would be effectively 
communicated with international travelers, with the airlines, 
with the interested parties?
    Mr. Talbert. Senator, that is beyond my pay grade. That is 
not one that I can answer, but I think the fact that we are 
having hearings here, I think this is one of the byproducts of 
the hearing is for the Government to hear from local officials 
who are on the ground every day on needs. And that is something 
that we are suggesting, the whole industry is suggesting----
    Senator Blackburn. Then let me ask you this, if it is not 
at your pay grade, whose pay grade is going to meet, assembling 
different agencies so that we have clearly understood 
guidelines?
    Mr. Talbert. Well, I would say probably the White House's. 
We always look to the White House in every Administration to 
pull things together. This is--continues to be a crisis. This 
is about jobs. So I would say that is probably a White House 
responsibility.
    Senator Blackburn. So this is another area where the White 
House not taking a positive action is causing a problem. So 
that is what----
    Mr. Talbert. No, ma'am. I am saying that is something that 
White Houses do. They may be doing it now, but it is--and I am 
not taking sides, but I have been doing this for a long time. 
And when you have a crisis of whatever, wherever it comes from, 
you pull people together, you get the agencies together, and 
you say what--you know, we need to solve this. So that is my, 
you know, Florida born and raised response.
    Senator Blackburn. OK. Mr. Thompson, your thoughts on that?
    Mr. Thompson. Yes, ma'am. So our relationship with the 
Federal Government is managed through the Department of 
Commerce. There is two great resources there within the 
Department of Commerce. One I already mentioned was the Travel 
and Tourism Advisory Board, appointed by the Secretary across 
section of the industry to inform decisions.
    And then within the Department of Commerce, there is a 
Travel Policy Council, which is representatives from all across 
the U.S. Government that implement and otherwise inform 
conversations about travel policy across all the U.S. 
Government. So I would imagine that has been a tremendous 
resource for us in the past as it relates to issues that have 
affected the travel and tourism industry, and certainly as it 
relates to navigating our relationship with the Federal 
Government.
    Mr. Talbert. And we have served on the TTAB in the past.
    Senator Blackburn. Mr. Thompson, let me come to you on live 
event venues because this is something that has a tremendous 
impact on our state of Tennessee. And we have tried to work and 
have worked tirelessly with the Administration on these 
shutdowns and to get support for these businesses. You have got 
a lot of support industry like lights, sound, catering, motor 
coach companies. They have had to lay people off. They are 
struggling to survive. One of the frustrations has been the 
lack of awareness from this Administration to recognize the 
entire ecosystem and how important that is to creating relief 
programs and getting people to the point that they can get to 
recovery. So what are you seeing with the live event venues?
    Mr. Thompson. Senator, certainly those live event venues in 
your state are a major attraction and tremendous benefit to the 
economy. And as it relates to tourism opportunities--you know, 
I think as it relates to where we are today, we first and 
foremost have to follow the direction of our health officials 
and our public policy officials tied to what the health 
officials are saying. In our opinion, as soon as we can get the 
venues open and as soon as we make all that is the United 
States of America available, in the two--first and foremost, 
our domestic audiences--it is getting our domestic economy up 
and running again. It was mentioned in the testimonies here 
that consumer confidence is critical.
    I mean, everything can happen but if we don't gain the 
confidence of our friends and visitors around a world that they 
can come and experience the experiences they have here in the 
United States, that is a big issue. So we are, I think, as 
optimistic as we have ever been as it relates to our ability to 
get on top of the pandemic. The vaccinations have certainly 
moved us along that path. And we feel like that it is going to 
be sooner than later, sooner than later. And certainly, as Bill 
suggested, you know, this time last year, we didn't have a 
whole lot of answers. So I think we are in a lot better shape 
where we are now.
    Senator Blackburn. There is a tremendous amount of 
frustration with the lack of action in addressing the whole 
ecosystem. So thank you all for your time. Thank you, Madam 
Chairman.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you. Next, I would like to recognize 
Senator Sullivan.

                STATEMENT OF HON. DAN SULLIVAN, 
                    U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA

    Senator Sullivan. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thanks for 
the witnesses here, and a really important topic. You know, a 
lot of people forget how big our tourism sector is for the 
whole country. It is like one-eighth of U.S. GDP, $2.3 
trillion, I think is the number, 1 in 10 jobs in America is 
related to tourism. So I think the chair and the ranking member 
know that. We know that in Alaska, certainly. Let me ask. Mr. 
Talbert, I know that you agree with Senator Scott, and I 
certainly do on the importance of the cruise ship industry.
    And we have been working to get the CDC to kind of--you 
know, we want to keep people safe, but we also don't want to 
crush entire economies, small businesses. They finally started 
to move, which is good. We are trying to salvage our tourism, 
summer tourism season in Alaska, which unlike Florida, is not 
so year round, let's say. Do you have any thoughts on that, 
just how important that is to the economy and not just in your 
state, but overall?
    Mr. Talbert. Thank you, Senator. That was a major part of 
my presentation, both verbal and written.
    Senator Sullivan. Oh, OK. Good--sorry, I wasn't----
    Mr. Talbert. But no, that is good. I like this. This is 
like I planted this question----
    Senator Sullivan. Your Senator told me not to.
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Sullivan. I mean, I am kidding. We are very in line 
on this. You may have seen in our actions on the Senate floor.
    Mr. Talbert. And by the way, I have cruised to Alaska.
    Senator Sullivan. Good. And I have spent a lot of time in 
Miami for vacation too.
    Mr. Talbert. Miami is the cruise capital of the world, 
which makes Florida the cruise capital.
    Senator Sullivan. I thought Alaska was.
    Mr. Talbert. No, we own that phrase. We bought the phrase.
    Senator Sullivan. I am kidding.
    Mr. Talbert. I am talking about the phrase.
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Sullivan. As a percentage of our GDP--thank you.
    Mr. Talbert. But, you know, you talk about jobs. Right now 
in Port Miami, the cruise capital of the world, 60 percent of 
the passengers were international connecting to international. 
There is $2 billion of development going on in Port Miami, 
which is a downtown port. It is--and I do a fair amount of 
cruising myself. But, and I can tell you that the local 
Government has helped the cruise lines, and the Governor knows 
this, he was there, to you know waive the fees for a while.
    And these are huge companies. We actually had Arnold Donald 
speak at our State of the Industry address a week ago. And 
finally, as you said, there is movement. There seems to be a 
light at the end of the tunnel, and it looks like people are 
speaking. This is a huge industry. For Miami, in downtown 
Miami, the cruise lines are probably the biggest purchaser of 
hotel rooms all year.
    Senator Sullivan. Yes. Well, look, in my state it is huge 
for our small businesses. So many thousands really of 
employees. So we are trying to salvage the season this summer 
and we are getting there. But the CDC has got to keep the pedal 
to the metal. The cruise ship executives need to make sure they 
don't forget about the great state of Alaska as well and 
salvage this summer. So we will keep working together. It has 
been if you are watching the Senate, I think, in a bipartisan 
way, it has been working very closely on this.
    I appreciate Senator Cantwell's cooperation and many 
others. Mr. Thompson, let me turn to you on this issue that, 
again, now this goes more to the international side. But the 
Canadians have--you know, they are normally our good neighbors. 
Actually, they are my state's only neighbor, you know, 
including Russia. But, you know, they have closed the borders. 
We are talking about international travel here. People can't 
even drive to my state. It has been very frustrating.
    Do you have a message for our neighbors here in North 
America about tourism? A lot of Americans go to Canada for 
tourism. That obviously is not happening. But what is your 
sense there? And then if you could also comment on my Visit 
America Act. We are getting ready to introduce that again, 
Senator Schatz, Senator King, welcome if the Ranking and Chair 
here in this committee are interested.
    But we think that is a really important bill to bring in 
more international tourists too hot--to elevate tourism as a 
real important component in our councils of Government here. 
You know, there is not one Senate confirmed official in America 
in charge of tourism and most foreign Governments have 
ministers, cabinet officials.
    We don't even have a Senate confirmed person in charge of 
tourism. My bill would change that, of course. But you have a 
thought on the Visit America Act and what is going on with the 
Canadian border, which is hurting international tourism? And 
certainly tourism in my state.
    Mr. Thompson. Yes, Senator. We have nearly 80 million 
international visitors in a normal year. A quarter of those 
come from Canada. So it is a very important market for us. We 
share our border, the largest border, and certainly we have a 
great affinity with our neighbors to the North. But it is a 
border issue and an opening of the of the border. We are 
hopeful that our two Governments are working on that. And 
certainly when that happens, your state, every border state and 
actually the entire United States, I know Florida receives a 
good portion of Canadian visitors.
    So, again, it is not a demand issue. I think there is pent 
up demand for them wanting to be returning to what they 
normally do. But we have to get the border situation resolved. 
As it relates to your Act, your Visit America Act, I would say 
that anything that raises the profile of travel and tourism 
within the Administration, within all of the U.S. Government, 
is something that will benefit our industry. We have talked a 
lot about the economic impacts. We talked about the soft 
diplomacy that travel and tourism does as far as bringing 
people and cultures together. So anything that would bring, 
would raise the profile of that, I would applaud.
    And thank Madam Chair for the naming of this subcommittee 
and Ranking Member Scott. Certainly being able to bring the 
profile of the industry to a group, a committee like this and 
then up through the Commerce committee, I think is a great----
    Senator Sullivan. So just to follow up on that. And I am 
not a big Government guy. I think we are growing Government way 
too much. But the fact that there is nobody really--I mean, the 
Secretary of Commerce and she is doing a good job, I think, but 
there is no one in the U.S. Government who gets up every day, 
at a senior level, and says my job is to promote American 
tourism and the giant component of American GDP and jobs 
related to that. We don't have that person. And most countries 
don't only have that person, they have an entire ministry and 
cabinet officials focused on it. So we think it will help and 
we are glad you guys support it.
    Mr. Thompson. As far as the industry goes, I think you will 
find a very receptive audience. Yes, sir.
    Senator Sullivan. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Senator Rosen. Well, thank you, Senator Sullivan. I have 
cruised in your state and in Senator Scott's state and have 
found them both wonderful. And what I do want to say, we are 
going to go to some second round questions. But I do want to 
say is this, is that out of the 50 states and territories, 
every single one of them has unique, unique beauty, from Alaska 
to Florida to Maine, all the way out to the desert Southwest, 
every state. That is why people come here and that is why it is 
soft diplomacy and that is why people enjoy it. And they, as 
Senator Blunt says, like us even more when they see the natural 
beauty that is everywhere across the United States. I am going 
to ask--open it for a second round. I guess, Senator Scott, do 
you want to go first and then I will just take my question last 
and then we will let Senator Sullivan, if he has another 
question.
    Senator Scott. You know, you do cruise in your state. You 
just do it on lake----
    Senator Rosen. Yes, we cruise on Lake Tahoe and Lake Mead.
    Senator Scott. So, Bill, can you talk about how bad your 
numbers were this last year and where they are now? And, you 
know, the biggest thing you could do right now to change the 
travel numbers?
    Mr. Talbert. Open up----
    Senator Scott. We didn't do--Senator Rosen just to put it 
in perspective. You know, you guys were the biggest airport of 
our tourism airports, but we didn't--Miami did what, $44 
million in 2019?
    Mr. Talbert. Yes. I mean, Miami International airport in 
its peak was the only airport in the United States served by 
more than 100 hundred airlines, 110. The only one. You know, it 
is a hub, but it is--you know, our numbers went down. But it 
has got a minority businesses. You know, we obviously come in 
and out of that. So it is very, very successful in it. You 
know, this infrastructure money--infrastructure money is needed 
there, but our numbers went down and there is--but what can we 
do is two things, open up international markets and get 
cruising going again. Period.
    Senator Scott. Who is traveling internationally into Miami 
right now?
    Mr. Talbert. Well, it has to do with lift. You know, I look 
at the airport and the airlines, there is still service from 
London, and they are still--and we got some service from 
Israel. I guess that is an issue there. Some international 
markets, not so much from the South, but the numbers are very 
light because of some of this, you know, these health issues. 
And some of it changes from day to day. You can come today. You 
can't come tomorrow. So our airport, which is part of Miami 
Dade Government, is, you know, it is a proprietary fund, once 
again is coming back. It is coming back.
    And we--also in the last 2 months, Miami International 
Airport has added three carriers that were not in Miami before. 
That is how robust our destination is, how much demand for 
travel to Miami, to South Florida, if you will, and we expect 
more. Some are the low cost, but it has stopped, and it is 
coming back. But international tourism and get the cruise 
industry going. It is a big, big, big market. But not only 
for--you know, the global headquarters for the largest cruise 
lines in the world are located in Miami, the corporate global 
headquarters. You know, talk about diversifying the economy.
    These are global headquarters. The number one trade show in 
the world, Cruise Shipping Miami. You know, the number two 
cruise show doesn't exist. Cruise Shipping Miami every year is 
back in Miami, the entire world--you can't go to another city 
in the world that has a port because the people are all in 
Miami for Cruise Shipping Miami. So ships, global headquarters, 
and meetings and conventions. So that is the answer.
    Senator Scott. You know, if you think about it, what 
Federal Government can do is what Senator Sullivan and I have 
been working on, the CDC has been really slow. I mean, and it 
is not just this year. It was horrible last year. I was at the 
first meeting where CDC met with the cruise industry back, I 
think--first week of April. It was really interesting. I mean, 
it is really disappointing. Has been disappointing this whole 
time. But the other thing is to, you know, open up these 
markets as soon as they are safe and do it as quickly as 
possible. That is two things the Federal Government can do. We 
actually, we can sort of push it.
    We don't need to make it happen. But those--I know for my 
state and I know for yours, and I think for all three of us, it 
would have the biggest impact. You don't have to deal with the 
CDC like we are with the cruise industry. But if they would 
just go out and say, open these markets quickly and talk about 
it, that would help us. The CDC actually on the mask stuff has 
probably been very helpful lately because that might speed it 
up.
    Mr. Talbert. Yes, that was breaking news, what, a few days 
ago. And that is why, you know, maybe something has happened 
now. So we might----
    Senator Scott. Holding a hearing, maybe.
    Mr. Talbert. Yes, maybe they are holding--yes, they are 
watching the hearing. Good for them.
    Senator Scott. Alright. Thank you, Chair.
    Senator Rosen. Senator Sullivan, please.
    Senator Sullivan. So let me get back to the Canadian issue. 
I didn't know the numbers were so big with regard to cross 
border, and I think that that is actually really important. We 
want to continue that. I think everybody does in America, 
whether it is Nevada or Florida or Alaska. Have you had 
discussions with their ministries? You know, our Federal 
Government has been trying to help them on the vaccines. I 
think it is starting to change. But I can't imagine that the 
communities in Canada that also rely on tourism are that 
pleased. So what are you hearing? And is there anything we can 
do?
    Mr. Thompson. So I think we are all in the same boat. That 
is a decision that is outside of our control, and it is not a 
demand issue. As soon as the borders are opened, I think you 
will see a return to travel like you have not seen before 
because everybody has been sitting, shelter in place for 15 
months. So, again, it gets back to the geopolitical 
conversations between the two countries, the health related 
issues that caused it, and then our ability to be able to 
deliver a safe experience. And I think we are both--both 
countries are in better shape than they were. But certainly 
that is a decision that has to be made by the two Governments.
    Senator Sullivan. Alright. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Senator Scott. So Senator Sullivan, my understanding, at 
least where I live, there is a lot of Canadians who come down. 
The issue wasn't that they couldn't come down, issue was that 
they couldn't go home. Because if they went home, they had to 
be two-week quarantined. And then on top of that, they didn't 
have any vaccines. They had, they didn't do what we did. They 
never bought the vaccines in advance. They bought--my 
understanding is they bought, I think, the Chinese vaccine, 
which didn't work.
    And so that is the two things, at least what people, 
Canadians I know were telling me. It was the biggest issue. And 
then the problem we have with getting cruise ships going. And 
this other issue you deal with is the fact that if you by law, 
I guess if you go out of Seattle or an American port, you have 
to stop in another----
    Senator Sullivan. Yes, we are working that. That is--right 
now the Senate has already moved to suspend that for several 
months. And then it is in the House right now and we are likely 
going to just read past the bill that we passed last week, 
again this week. It is a little bit of a complicated issue and 
shouldn't be an issue in the Senate at all since it has already 
passed the identical bill. So that will be a waiver on the PVSA 
issue, which matters to Alaska.
    But, you know, it is something we might want to look at 
more permanently, right. What I said on the floor last week, I 
don't think any state in the United States should be dependent 
in a huge way on their economy relative to tourism or other 
things on another country. So we have a solution right now that 
is working its way through the Congress, but we might be 
looking at longer-term.
    Senator Scott. Senator Sullivan can you bring up, why do we 
have to stop?
    Senator Sullivan. It is the Passenger Vessel Service Act, 
which was passed in the mid to late 1800s. And it is one of 
those bills that we are now re-looking at and I think it has 
raised a whole host of issues on the very question that my good 
friend from Florida just asked, which is why. And you know, a 
lot of people in Alaska are asking why, and so we will see. But 
right now it looks like hopefully, I don't want to jinx it, but 
it is moving. And it will again move this week in the Senate, 
identical bill, and hopefully the House moves on it, and we can 
move beyond that challenge, particularly to cruise ships in 
Alaska this summer. Thanks again, Madam Chair.
    Senator Rosen. Of course. Thank you. And I want to say in 
regards to Canada, one of our largest not just tourism 
partners, trading partners, we need to get tourism, trade 
exports going all around. And today is just one piece. We will 
be talking about the others soon enough. I would like to ask 
probably one of the last questions here, as we have talked 
about all of these other things and one of the big drivers like 
you spoke about, Mr. Talbert, is conventions, business travel. 
We know how important it is for business travelers.
    Those conventioneers that come may bring their families, 
get a taste of going somewhere, and then they come back to 
visit or whatever they want to do later. So these questions are 
to Ms. Vassiliadis and Mr. Talbert both. You know, our trade 
shows, international business travel, it is essential for 
convention centers, not just the great ones we have in Nevada 
and in Florida, but, of course, all around the country. And 
they support our local Governments. They support a whole host 
of small businesses that support them as well. They eat at 
restaurants, local restaurants, for us they gamble in casinos, 
they rent cars, they go shopping, all of those things.
    So we will start with Ms. Vassiliadis. What strategies are 
in place right now that you have going on that are going to 
increase the number of conventions that we can hold in Nevada 
or Florida, and which rely heavily on our international travel 
business? And what do you think we might be able to help you do 
in Congress to help you attract more international travelers 
who studies show may be more willing? International travelers 
may be more willing to get on a plane right now during the 
pandemic, but there is such a slowdown in business meetings. We 
have to get it back going.
    So, Ms. Vassiliadis, what do you think we can do, what 
strategies do you have in place, and what help do you need from 
us?
    Ms. Vassiliadis. Well, actually, just this morning, the 
Board of County Commissioners unveiled their plan to reopen to 
100 percent come June 1. So the Las Vegas Strip is actually 
located in Clark County and the Board has that jurisdiction. So 
that is a very positive sign going forward. But I think first 
and going forward from that, it is opening the borders, you 
know, especially the UK, especially overseas. We know that we 
have demand. We know here for Las Vegas as a destination that 
the passengers would respond to the international carriers 
resuming. We know the international carriers, you know, want to 
resume. Just as a side note, in Las Vegas, almost--well, under 
about 1.6 million of our 3.8 million passengers come from 
Canada.
    So that is a huge, huge impact on us. You know that one is 
a little bit different because that is Government, the Canadian 
Government, as well as our Government. So what I would ask and 
what I hope from this hearing is that it is a steppingstone 
going forward to opening up that traffic again across, you 
know, across the seas so that we could resume having 
international travelers attending our conventions.
    You know, we are going to have our first big one, start on 
June 7, which is World of Concrete. It has an international 
component not being able to come. CDS, of course, the largest 
convention has, my goodness, about 60,000 delegates come 
internationally. We hope by January we will be all ready for 
that one.
    Senator Rosen. Well, we will be ready to accept them. Mr. 
Talbert, what strategies are in place for you so that you are 
just ready to respond and greet all the travelers? What do you 
need from us to be sure you are ready?
    Mr. Talbert. Well, I am glad you brought up the 
conventions, meetings and conventions. That is an important 
component and sometimes we don't talk about it. We have talked 
about the glitz and the glitter of vacations and all of that. 
But we have a reimagined convention center on Miami Beach, $600 
million investment in essentially a new convention center. And 
we at the Greater Miami Convention Visitors Bureau like to lead 
by example. So it was last October 21--October 21, we had the 
first face to face, virtual, face to face annual meeting for a 
convention center in the United States included a lunch. We had 
250 people in that convention center. They were all spaced out 
and we showed that it is safe to meet in Miami and that became 
the gold standard.
    What we did then is took that and showed all of the 
customers, the potential customers that were out there, just 
pent up demand we talked about, and said, listen, you can come 
to Miami and Miami Beach and have a meeting, a convention 
safely. Why? We showed it. What we do every single week, and 
the staff is watching this as we speak, we bring meeting 
planners face to face to Miami. Not a tough sell, but to look 
at our hotels and look at our meeting space because the 
meetings and conventions are important. None of the 
destinations, not Miami, not Las Vegas, nobody can prosper 
without a robust, healthy convention business. We have had an 
investment.
    We have had--we just had the Jewelers International 
Showcase, March 22, a B2B, March 22. They had record 
attendance. All they talked to us was, how can they bring more 
business to Miami and Miami Beach--March 22. We have Art Basel, 
you know, the top art show in the world in December coming 
back. So I am glad you brought up meetings and conventions 
because we sometimes forget it. But thank you. It is important 
to jobs in our community,
    Senator Rosen. I think to all communities, what you are 
doing, what we are doing in Las Vegas can help set the 
standards. And then, Mr. Thompson, of course, you can help us 
market those around the world to let people know it is safe to 
come and travel. So unless you have anything else you want to 
add, Senator Scott, we are going to close this hearing for 
today.
    I want to thank you all so much for participating in 
today's hearing. The hearing record is going to remain open for 
two weeks until Tuesday, June 1, 2021. So Senators, there will 
be Senators from this committee and others, will be submitting 
questions to all of you. And if they want to do that there, for 
the record, they will do that by Tuesday, June 1.
    And so for those of you testifying today, we ask that your 
responses be returned to the Committee as quickly as possible 
and in no case later than two weeks after receipt. And I so 
appreciate all the work that you are doing to promote our great 
travel and tourism industry. And that concludes today's 
hearing. Thank you.
    [Whereupon, at 4:23 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]

                            A P P E N D I X

   Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Amy Klobuchar to 
                        Rosemary A. Vassiliadis
    Airport Safety. As the Administration's rollout of vaccines 
continues to exceed its targets, the development of safe travel 
measures will play a critical role in restoring international travel 
and helping the industries and workforce that have been hardest hit by 
the pandemic.

    Question. In your testimony, you highlight the need for testing and 
a cross-border strategy to restore international travel. Can you speak 
to what measures airports should be taking to contribute to safely 
opening our borders for international travelers?
    Answer. In the near term, I believe America's airports are now very 
well-prepared to welcome back the robust return of international 
travelers. Since the onset of the pandemic, airports across the country 
have taken considerable action to protect the health of the traveling 
public, as well as those who work at airports. These steps include 
enhanced cleaning and sanitization procedures, reducing touch points, 
upgrading HVAC systems to improve and filter air flow, plus so many 
other actions as recommended by the CDC and local health authorities 
throughout the pandemic. Many still offer onsite COVID-19 testing, as 
well as vaccination opportunities for employees and travelers.
    The CDC currently requires all air passengers arriving to the 
United States from a foreign country to be tested no more than three 
days before their departure, and to present negative results or 
documentation of having recovered from COVID-19 to an airline before 
boarding a flight into the United States. With these existing 
requirements and any potential future requirements, it's the air 
carriers--rather than airports--who are best suited to handle such 
initial verifications, well before a traveler actually steps foot 
within the United States.
    With some modifications, these same processes could likewise be 
utilized to ascertain a traveler's vaccination status prior to their 
departure for the United States, should such information be required on 
a voluntary basis. Verification of test results is already an airline 
responsibility, and they are performing admirably in this area. This 
sequence mirrors today's layered approach of security requirements used 
by the airlines when a traveler books a ticket. For these reasons, I 
would suggest that all current or additional pre-travel requirements 
would and should be handled directly between air carriers and their 
customers; airlines know who plans to fly from the moment a passenger 
books a trip, whereas airports are not immediately privy to such 
details.
    In fact the industry is already moving in this direction, as 
evidenced by the International Air Transport Association's smartphone-
based IATA Travel Pass, used globally by airlines such as British 
Airways, Emirates, Japan Airlines, Qantas, and Virgin Atlantic; as well 
as another option called CommonPass, in use with carriers including 
Cathay Pacific, JetBlue, Lufthansa and United. Both enable travelers to 
verify that their COVID-19 test results will be accepted at their 
destination, and can be used to verify one's vaccination status when 
checking in online.
    The Federal government must play a role in the formation and 
adoption of worldwide standards that would require interoperability of 
any and all so-called ``digital health credentials'' to authenticate 
testing, and potentially, the vaccination status for international 
travelers. Such actions from the Federal government are necessary to 
maintain international standards to expedite travel as well as 
commerce. Airports could assist airlines as needed, though most of this 
process would occur directly between a traveler and their air carrier, 
all long before travel commences.
    Looking long-term, airports will need to continue to make 
investments in their infrastructure to better handle larger crowds, 
modernize their air filtration systems, improve sustainability efforts 
and address other improvements that will accompany the public's 
widespread return to the skies. Access to more funding made available 
by an increase in the Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) would go a long 
way toward helping airports in offering a safer, healthier and more 
convenient travel experience.
    I am encouraged by the recent news that President Biden has tasked 
the White House Covid-19 Response Team and National Security Council to 
lead expert working groups that will determine when and how to lift 
rules that now prevent many nations' travelers from entering the 
country. There has been talk of movement on potential changes to travel 
restrictions between the United States and Canada, as well as within 
the U.S.-United Kingdom corridor. These are welcome developments that 
hopefully will lead to more travelers very soon. Our industry and the 
numerous American communities, businesses, individuals and families who 
rely on open international travel eagerly await the outcome of these 
and other related developments.

    Support for the Air Travel Industry. In 2020, the airline industry 
lost about 90,000 jobs as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. In 
2019, my legislation with Senator Blunt to reauthorize Brand USA 
through 2027 was signed into law. Before the pandemic, Brand USA 
supported more than 45,000 jobs a year, and generated $56 billion to 
our economy.

    Question. Can you speak to how programs that promote the travel and 
tourism industry, like Brand USA, can help contribute to the recovery 
of the air travel industry and workforce?
    Answer. International travel is a critical export for the United 
States and I am supportive of efforts to make this industry more 
competitive on a global basis.
    According to the U.S. Travel Association, international travelers 
spent more than $233 billion within our country in 2019 alone. That 
figure dipped dramatically to around $83 million last year as a result 
of the pandemic, but as we push closer to reopening it is vital that we 
continue to broadly present the United States, its amenities and 
attractions before would-be visitors across the globe. Brand USA has 
been an effective means for achieving this goal.
    As you can imagine, many of those 45,000 jobs you cited are in Las 
Vegas, where international travel has taken on an increased importance 
over the past two decades. In 2019, McCarran International Airport 
enjoyed service from 11 different countries, and added new nonstop from 
far-away destinations such as Amsterdam, Paris and Tel Aviv. We were 
approaching 4 million annual passengers to and from international 
markets. Then came COVID-19, and today Mexico remains the lone market 
outside our Nation that enjoys nonstop Las Vegas service.
    The rapid pace with which domestic air travel has resumed in recent 
weeks speaks to the ongoing consumer demand for air travel. I can only 
conclude a similar pent-up demand for international travel will exist 
once restrictions are lifted and it's safe to move about across borders 
once more.
    Other nations around the world actively promote international 
tourism. With many now smaller in size as a result of pandemic-driven 
cutback and fleet reductions, the competition for visitors will be very 
intense in the short term. There will always be some global familiarity 
with the United States and its signature markets, be it a Los Angeles 
or New York, Orlando, San Francisco or even Las Vegas. We must continue 
to expand that familiarity to drive demand for air travel into U.S. 
gateways, and Brand USA is one of many channels to help achieve this 
goal.
                                 ______
                                 
   Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Amy Klobuchar to 
                        Christopher L. Thompson
    Brand USA. From December 2019 to December 2020, we saw a nearly 76 
percent decrease in international visitors. My legislation with Senator 
Blunt to reauthorize Brand USA--a proven public-private partnership 
that promotes international tourism to the U.S., through 2027--was 
signed into law in 2019. Before the pandemic, Brand USA supported more 
than 45,000 jobs a year, and generated $56 billion to our economy.

    Question 1. In your testimony, you note that the economic fallout 
from the pandemic has disrupted Brand USA's funding model, jeopardizing 
its ability to help restart international travel. Can you speak to the 
importance of helping to fund the Brand USA program for the economy, 
and can you elaborate on what resources are needed to maintain the 
health of Brand USA?
    Answer. The pandemic has had a devastating effect on travel and 
tourism, and especially on communities, businesses, and individuals 
reliant on international visitor spending. Inbound international travel 
has historically been our country's number two export and its top 
services export. In 2019, travel exports were $233.5 billion, 
delivering a $51 billion trade surplus and directly supporting 1.2 
million jobs. But from March through the end of 2020, overall 
international arrivals fell by 91 percent and overseas visitation was 
down a staggering 96 percent compared to the same period a year 
earlier. Over the entire year, including the normal first quarter, 
travel exports plummeted by 64 percent to just $83 billion--a year-
over-year loss of $150 billion. Without a concerted effort, travel 
exports will continue to fall and lost jobs will be slow to return--and 
some may not come back at all.
    Brand USA has developed a comprehensive approach to help rebuild 
traveler confidence and stimulate demand. A national campaign is 
critical because of how slowly the international segment is expected to 
recover, and because U.S. destinations and companies will invest 
comparatively fewer resources in international markets over the next 
couple years. Unfortunately, the pandemic has disrupted the funding 
model established by the Travel Promotion Act and jeopardized these 
plans.
    Brand USA is funded by contributions from non-federal sources and 
matching funds from ESTA fees paid by visa waiver travelers during the 
prior Fiscal Year. We receive a dollar in matching funds--up to $100 
million per year--for each dollar of contributed cash or in-kind which 
clears the verification process at the U.S. Department of Commerce.
    Three factors have challenged this funding model. First, ESTA 
collections are stagnant, resulting in only $62 million in available 
matching funds this year and potentially as little as $10 million next 
year. Second, Brand USA's partner base and the travel industry more 
broadly continue to face significant hurdles to making pre-COVID levels 
of contributions. Third, the Brand USA Extension Act (2019) raised the 
minimum proportion of cash contributions from 30 percent to 50 percent, 
which is a major hurdle for our cash-strapped industry partners to 
meet.
    These are structural impediments only Congress can solve. That's 
why the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board recently recommended an 
extraordinary $250 million appropriation to Brand USA, outside the 
matching process, to provide the resources to hasten the international 
travel recovery. The TTAB also recommended temporary suspension of the 
50:50 cash-to-in-kind ratio for greater matching flexibility.
    Oxford Economics estimates that such an appropriation would lead to 
more than 1.7 million more visitors who would collectively spend $4.5 
billion, generating nearly $700 million in Federal taxes and support 
more than 40,000 new jobs. It would also allow the United States to 
return to 2019 levels of arrivals and spending in 2024 instead of the 
current forecast of 2025.
    Fiscal Year 2022 will see historic growth rates in returns to 
global travel as the world begins to move again. How our country 
responds will determine the trajectory of our sector's recovery and 
many other parts of the economy.

    Question 2. One report found that if international travel is not 
reopened soon, the U.S. economy is projected to lose $175 billion in 
spending by the end of 2021. Can you speak to the role international 
visitor spending plays for local economies?
    Answer. States and communities across the country rely on traveler 
spending for economic development, job creation, and tax revenues. The 
international segment of the overall U.S. travel and tourism economy is 
particularly valuable because international visitors on average spend 
more time and money, and visit more places, than domestic travelers.
    In 2019, according to the U.S. Travel Association, travel generated 
$2.6 trillion in economic output that supported a total of 16.7 million 
American jobs across the economy, including 9 million direct jobs and 
7.7 million indirect and induced jobs (travel drives output and 
employment throughout the whole economy, including sectors like 
manufacturing, construction, finance, and more). These figures make 
travel the country's seventh-largest private sector employer; travel-
dependent leisure and hospitality is the largest small-business 
employer in the United States. Importantly, some 1.2 million American 
jobs were supported directly by international traveler spending.
    In addition to its direct revenue and job creation effects, travel 
provides essential support to state and local governments to pay for 
public services like firefighters and police, teachers, water and 
transportation infrastructure, and more. Without the incremental tax 
receipts generated by travel, local residents would have to pay more in 
taxes each year for these services. According to data from the U.S. 
Travel Association, total tax receipts from travel in 2019 were nearly 
$170 billion, of which $45 billion were state tax receipts and nearly 
$44 billion were local tax receipts.
    The past 15 months have been a stark reminder of the important role 
the travel sector plays in the vitality of economies at the local, 
state, and national levels. Towns and cities have seen their hotels, 
restaurants, attractions, and small businesses suffer job losses that 
have impacted families and communities.
    The catastrophic drop in travel has had a devastating impact on the 
industry. According to Oxford Economics, cumulative U.S. travel and 
tourism losses have now surpassed $600 billion after contracting 42 
percent in 2020. This lost spending resulted in a cascading loss in tax 
receipts of $75 billion across the federal, state, and local levels 
through April 2021. And the leisure and hospitality sector alone lost 
22 percent of its jobs last year and accounted for nearly 40 percent of 
all jobs lost during the pandemic.
    The travel industry, and in particular international travel, will 
play a major role in our country's economic recovery, but it will 
involve building back from a deep hole.

    Question 3. In January 2021, the total value of travel and tourism-
related exports was less than one-third of the amount compared to the 
same time in 2020. Can you speak to how developing safe travel 
measures, including coordination between the private sector and both 
Federal and state governments, will help to boost travel exports?
    Answer. While Brand USA does not have a role in policy formulation, 
our market research tells us that restoring consumer confidence in 
travel to the United States is key to recovery. The single most 
important factor in rebuilding this confidence is getting on top of the 
pandemic so that Americans are safe to travel around the country and 
destinations are able to open up at full capacity. This will 
demonstrate to the world that the United States is open for business 
and ready and eager to receive visitors again.
    At the same time, the pandemic caused governments to enact various 
protocols, requirements, and restrictions around travel to curb the 
spread of the virus. Multi-layered and evolving guidance has added to 
traveler confusion and hesitancy. While hygiene and safety protocols 
adopted by public and private entities are important factors in 
restoring confidence in travel, there is a need for consistent and 
transparent policies and procedures around testing, vaccinations, and 
quarantines so international inbound travelers know what to expect. All 
things being equal, the simpler and more harmonized the travel 
experience, the more competitive the destination.
    Brand USA will continue to communicate whichever protocols are 
ultimately worked out by governments and the private sector to allow 
for a safe resumption of international travel. We look forward to 
welcoming international visitors back to our shores while maintaining 
the health and safety of the traveling public.
    Brand USA has developed a comprehensive approach to help rebuild 
traveler confidence and stimulate demand. The recovery campaign will 
focus on three sequential tasks to jumpstart international travel and 
help relieve some of the financial shortfalls in the industry. First, 
rebuild traveler confidence by demonstrating the United States is ready 
to receive them. Second, welcome the world back through an inspiring 
creative approach that evokes the possibility awaiting in a trip to the 
USA. Third, entice and convert the inspiration and pent-up demand into 
booking a trip.

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