The US Senate needs to learn that the way to attract more overseas tourists to the US is NOT to charge a new $10 fee. Incredibly, that’s the gist of the new Travel Promotion Act, introduced on Tuesday by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND). Obviously this guy from North Dakota knows nothing about what makes foreigners want to visit us here.
The bill would create a non-profit corporation ‘to better communicate U.S. entry policies to international travelers and promote leisure, business and scholarly travel to the US.’ The act would also create an office of travel promotion with the Dept of Commerce.
But after that it gets ugly. The Dept of Homeland Security would collect a $10 fee from foreign travelers to pay for the whole thing. Gadling, a cheeky blog published by AOL, has this suggestion:
Here’s what the US government can really do to encourage foreign visitors: Add more countries to the Visa Waiver Program. Stop requiring every visitor to the US (except those from the 35 “low-risk” countries already in the program) to go through the hassle, expense, and impossibly long wait that obtaining a visa inevitably entails.
And oh yeah, if a person is lucky enough to actually obtain a traveler’s visa, let’s stop treating them like criminals before they even get in the door.
Tags: entry fees, visas
