US Travel Association chief executive Geoff Freeman spoke to Robin Searle at US trade conference IPW in San Antonio
The head of the US Travel Association has pledged the body will engage with UK trade partners to steer its efforts to drive growth in visitors from America’s “most important overseas market”.
US Travel Association (USTA) president and chief executive Geoff Freeman said: “The UK has always been our most-important overseas market and I don’t see that changing any time soon.”
Speaking in San Antonio, Texas, at his first IPW conference since taking over from Roger Dow last year, Freeman said the trade had its “finger on the pulse of what customers want” and would be instrumental in steering the association’s lobbying of policy makers.
He said. “We need to be driving 10% increases year over year. The approach to achieving that will be different for different markets.
“[Marketing body] Brand USA will be key, but we’re there to deal with any hurdles or annoyances and we’re reliant on the experts to help us be most effective in the jobs we do.”
Freeman identified UK travellers’ access to the Global Entry programme at the US border as a way to streamline the arrivals process for regular visitors and to encourage growth.
He said talks on extending pre-departure clearance of US customs for UK travellers continue, with the aim of mirroring existing arrangements in Ireland and Canada, and he is “hopeful” the option will become available although it remains “early days”.
Freeman identified US visa-wait times, the customs and border experience, and extensive post-pandemic disruption to air passengers in the US as barriers to growth.
He told Travel Weekly he believes the delays to visa applications and at the border can be resolved relatively quickly but acknowledged: “Creating a functioning air travel system is a whole other animal.”
Freeman noted the entire US travel industry is looking at ways to address the current inefficiencies and delays affecting US domestic air traffic.
He said: “We’ll continue to make our voice heard. Communications are the most important thing we do as we raise the issues affecting the industry.
“If people [policymakers and the public] don’t know there is a problem, there is often not a lot of zeal to fix it.
“But we have to understand our capabilities and focus on government-made issues [such as visa and border delays].”
Freeman also pledged to make the industry’s case to government on issues such as gun crime and safety.
But he added: “It’s incumbent on us to understand the politics of issues. We’ve been clear that travel and public safety go hand in hand and our job is to make decision-makers aware of the impact of their decisions. Just because we aren’t vocal [on an issue] doesn’t mean we’re not having those conversations.”