Contents
Chapter 122 · Travel and tourism
9801Defined term#
In this title: 1
(1)The term “COVID–19 public health emergency”—
(A)means the public health emergency first declared on January 31, 2020, by the Secretary of Health and Human Services under section 247d of title 42 with respect to COVID–19; and
(B)includes any renewal of such declaration pursuant to such section 247d of title 42.
(2)The term “music tourism” means—
(A)the act of traveling to a State or locality to visit historic or modern day music-related attractions, including museums, studios, venues of all sizes, and other sites related to music; or
(B)the act of traveling to a State or locality to attend a music festival, a concert, or other live musical performance or music-related special event.
9802Purposes#
The purposes of this subtitle are—
(1)to support the travel and tourism industry, which produces economic impacts that are vital to our national economy; and
(2)to establish national goals for international visitors to the United States, including—
(A)recommendations for achieving such goals and timelines for implementing such recommendations;
(B)coordination between Federal and State agencies;
(C)the resources needed by each Government agency to achieve such goals; and
(D)the number of international visitors and the value of national travel exports.
9803Responsibilities of the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Travel and Tourism#
(a)The Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Travel and Tourism (referred to in this section as the “Assistant Secretary”) shall—
(1)after consultation with the travel and tourism industry, work with the Travel Promotion Committee and the United States Travel and Tourism Advisory Board to establish an annual goal, consistent with the goals of the travel and tourism strategy developed pursuant to section 9804(1) of this title, for—
(A)the number of international visitors to the United States; and
(B)the value of travel and tourism commerce;
(2)develop recommendations for achieving the annual goals established pursuant to paragraph (1);
(3)ensure that travel and tourism policy is developed in consultation with—
(A)the Tourism Policy Council;
(B)the Secretary of State;
(C)the Secretary of Homeland Security;
(D)the Corporation for Travel Promotion;
(E)the United States Travel and Tourism Advisory Board; and
(F)travel and tourism industry representatives, including public and private destination marketing organizations, travel and tourism suppliers, gig economy representatives, and labor representatives from these industries;
(4)establish short, medium, and long-term timelines for implementing the recommendations developed pursuant to paragraph (2);
(5)conduct Federal agency needs assessments, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget and other relevant Federal agencies, to identify the resources, statutory or regulatory changes, and private sector engagement needed to achieve the annual visitation goals; and
(6)provide assessments and recommendations to—
(A)the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate;
(B)the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives; and
(C)the public through a publicly accessible website.
(b)The Assistant Secretary, to the extent feasible, shall—
(1)evaluate, on an ongoing basis, domestic policy options for supporting competitiveness with respect to the strengths, weaknesses, and growth of the domestic travel industry;
(2)develop recommendations and goals to support and enhance domestic tourism, separated by business and leisure;
(3)engage public and private stakeholders to support domestic tourism; and
(4)identify locations and events in the United States that are important to music tourism and facilitate and promote domestic travel and tourism to those locations and events.
(c)The Assistant Secretary shall—
(1)consult with the Secretary of Labor to develop strategies and best practices for improving the timeliness and reliability of travel and tourism workforce data;
(2)work with the Secretary of Labor and the Bureau of Economic Analysis to improve travel and tourism industry data;
(3)provide recommendations for policy enhancements and efficiencies; and
(4)provide policy recommendations regarding the gig economy as it relates to travel and tourism.
(d)The Assistant Secretary, in coordination with relevant Federal agencies, shall strive to increase and facilitate international business and leisure travel to the United States and ensure competitiveness by—
(1)facilitating large meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions in the United States;
(2)emphasizing rural and other destinations in the United States that are rich in cultural heritage or ecological tourism, among other uniquely American destinations, as locations for hosting international meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions;
(3)facilitating and promoting international travel and tourism to sports and recreation events and activities in the United States; and
(4)identifying locations and events in the United States that are important to music tourism and facilitating and promoting international travel and tourism to those locations and events.
(e)
(1)Not later than 1 year after amounts are appropriated to the Department of Commerce to accomplish the purposes of this section, the Assistant Secretary, in consultation with the entities referred to in subsection (a)(3), shall develop recovery strategies for the travel and tourism industry in response to the economic impacts of the COVID–19 pandemic and in anticipation of other unpredictable catastrophic events that would significantly affect the travel and tourism industry, such as hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, tornadoes, wildfires, terrorist attacks, and pandemics.
(2)In developing the recovery strategies under paragraph (1), the Assistant Secretary shall conduct cost-benefit analyses that take into account the health and economic effects of public health mitigation measures on the travel and tourism industry.
(f)
(1)The Assistant Secretary, subject to the availability of appropriations, shall produce an annual forecasting report on the travel and tourism industry, which shall include current and anticipated—
(A)domestic employment needs;
(B)international inbound volume and spending, taking into account the lasting effects of the COVID–19 public health emergency and the impact of the recovery strategy implemented pursuant to subsection (e)(1); and
(C)domestic volume and spending, including Federal and State public land travel and tourism data.
(2)The Director of the Bureau of Economic Analysis, subject to the availability of appropriations and to the extent feasible, should make quarterly updates to the Travel and Tourism Satellite Accounts, including—
(A)State-level travel and tourism spending data;
(B)travel and tourism workforce data for full-time and part-time employment; and
(C)Federal and State public lands outdoor recreational activity and tourism spending data.
(3)The Director of the National Travel and Tourism Office—
(A)in partnership with the Bureau of Economic Analysis and other relevant Federal agencies, shall provide a monthly report on international arrival and spending data to—
(i)the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board; and
(ii)the public through a publicly accessible website; and
(B)shall include questions in the Survey of International Air Travelers regarding wait-times, visits to public lands, and State data, to the extent applicable.
(4)Not later than 1 year after October 9, 2026, and every 2 years thereafter, the Assistant Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives a report of activities, findings, achievements, and vulnerabilities relating to the goals described in subsections (a) through (d).
9804Travel and tourism strategy#
Not less frequently than once every 10 years, the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the United States Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, the Tourism Policy Council, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall develop and submit to Congress a 10-year travel and tourism strategy, which shall include—
(1)the establishment of goals with respect to the number of annual international visitors to the United States and the annual amount of travel and tourism commerce in the United States during such 10-year period;
(2)the resources needed to achieve the goals established pursuant to paragraph (1); and
(3)recommendations for statutory or regulatory changes that would be necessary to achieve such goals.
United States Government work; public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105.