Brand USA confident of funding deal despite proposal to slash budget

The chief executive of Brand USA insists he is confident the marketing organisation will be able to secure a funding deal with the US government despite proposals to slash its budget by 80%.

Brand USA is funded through a private-public partnership, with a current cap of $100 million on matched funds raised through the Esta visa waiver programme.

However, a recent proposal from the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation recommended cutting that budget from $100 million to $20 million.

Speaking at the IPW conference in Chicago, Brand USA chief executive Fred Dixon said he was given confidence by the inclusion of a full funding renewal in President Trump’s initial budget, as well as a recently established partnership with the Department of Transportation to promote US road trips.

Dixon said Brand USA was “engaged in an unprecedented level of dialogue with every level of government, including the White House”, adding: “The President’s budget included us at full levels and we are taking that as a really good sign.

“The Secretary of Transportation is super engaged and there has been really terrific dialogue so we are confident things will sort themselves. We are working at full speed.”

Dixon described industry support in opposing the proposed cuts as “remarkable”, adding: “I want to extend our sincere thanks to the entire industry for their efforts to protect the future of our organisation.”

He also said the work of Brand USA was “more important than ever”, with the US travel and tourism industry responsible for economic impact of $2.9 trillion and supporting 15 million jobs.

“Over the past 12 years, including the Covid period, Brand USA’s marketing efforts generated more than 10 million incremental visitors, who spent $35 billion dollars and had a cumulative economic impact of $76 billion,” he added.

“Results like this illustrate our positive impact and show just how important Brand USA is for the industry and the overall US economy.”

Focuses for the organisation in the coming years include landmark celebrations for America’s 250^th anniversary and the 100^th anniversary of Route 66, as well as the hosting of major events including next year’s football World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games.

In addition to uncertainty over the funding of Brand USA, the organisation is also awaiting the appointment of five new board members, after five previous members including chair Elliott Ferguson of Destination DC were abruptly dismissed by the Department of Commerce at the end of April.

Dixon said: “We have 11 places on our board and we have six in place, so we have been able to maintain business as usual. It is [the DOC’s] prerogative to appoint the board so we are now waiting for confirmation of those appointments.”

He added that further detail of Brand USA’ s future strategy would be discussed at its next board meeting on July 17, which will be available to view as a webinar.

Brand USA used the IPW conference to unveil a new ‘America the Beautiful’ campaign and Dixon said the organisation was forging ahead with plans to begin activity in key markets from August.

“We are finalising our media schedule and partner programmes and we will be aligning all our activity to this campaign which underpins our strategy,” he said.

“America 250 and the World Cup are coming next year and these aren’t just about the big destinations, there are almost 50 base camps (for competing nations) so this offers us a huge opportunity to showcase the nation.”

He added: “I think this will be a real legacy moment for Brand USA and how we operate going forward. We are going to build new incremental business for smaller destinations in ways we haven’t been able to in the past.”

Core to the strategy will be the integration of artificial intelligence, which will allow consumers to interact and create personalised itinerary suggestions.

However, Dixon was keen to stress the importance of the trade as a call to action.

“We have already created 50 itineraries linked to World Cup cities and we are hoping to increase that to 250, with all of them bookable through the trade,” he said.

“I see America the Beautiful and the integration of AI at the inspiration level, but our goal is to drive (consumers) to the trade and our partners and that remains central to our strategy.”