The United States can easily be the world’s leading inbound tourism destination in terms of number of visitors, spending by tourists and also visitor experiences, says United States Travel Association. But for this to emerge, sustained efforts need to be made by the government and industry to ease inbound travel into the US, says Geoff Freeman, President and CEO.

The United States should make travel a national priority, solve barriers to visitation growth and become the most-visited nation in the world, Geoff Freeman, President and CEO of US Travel Association, the national travel industry association, said at the ongoing US IPW 2024, which is organised by USTA in collaboration with Brand USA, the national destination marketing organisation.

“It should be our national goal to be nothing short of number one in terms of visitor arrivals, visitor spend and visitor experience. But our ambitions are constrained by excessively long wait times for visitor visas, often-lengthy waits at customs, and an air traffic control system that is challenged to meet demand. Achieving travel growth will require a sustained focus by government and industry to address frictions and improve the process for travellers,” Freeman told the gathering at Los Angeles in California, the host city of IPW 2024.

The 55th annual IPW is being held May 3-7 at the Los Angeles Convention Centre. According to USTA, IPW drives more than USD 5.5 billion in economic impact in future travel to the US.

In his address, Freeman pointed to a decade of opportunity ahead as the United States prepares to welcome millions of new travellers to major events in destinations nationwide, such as Copa America this summer, the FIFA World Cup games and America’s 250th celebration in 2026, and the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, among others that will attract leisure and business travellers.

At US Travel’s IPW press conference, Freeman was joined by a panel of the Commission on Seamless and Secure Travel, including co-chair Kevin McAleenan, former Acting Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security and Patty Cogswell, former Deputy Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration.

According to a press statement by USTA, the speakers called for creating a more efficient, secure and modern travel system for the US. USTA says that the commission, comprised of former government officials and private sector experts, is tasked with making policy recommendations to modernise the travel experience, increase travel competitivity of the United States and facilitate growth.

USTA says that IPW 2024 is seeing about 5,700 attendees from nearly 70 countries who will have over 100,000 scheduled business appointments with US travel suppliers over three days.

This year’s IPW has seen a 20 pc increase in attendance over 2023, an indication of travel’s continuing recovery, says the organisation. However, total inbound visitation to the US at the end of 2023 remained at just 84 pc recovered of 2019 levels, so much work remains ahead to build arrivals and increase market share, says Freeman. The 56th IPW will be held in Chicago from June 14-18, 2025.