Law boosts tourism marketing overseas

The Laguna Beach Visitors and Conference Bureau is hoping the recently enacted Travel Promotion Act will increase tourism and create new travel-oriented jobs.

The law “” which provides direct aid for cities to promote themselves to overseas travelers “” was signed by President Obama on March 4. According to a press release from the bureau, the law would support about 4,000 travel-dependent jobs in Laguna Beach. It would also provide money for cities to promote U.S. tourism to international visitors.

The law, which creates a public-private partnership, is a first for the United States, according to the U.S. Travel Assn.

Judith Bijlani, executive director of the bureau, said the act creates the potential for more revenue for cities from tourist spending. It would also create more jobs in the future.

“Eventually we will be able to attract more visitors because of the new act,” Bijlani said. “We can’t exactly tell how the act will affect tourism, but as time passes, we will receive more money to help promote businesses in Laguna Beach. Of course, this goes for a bunch of other cities as well.”

Hotel “bed taxes” are a significant source of revenue for the city and have fallen off with the recession.

Local hotel operators gave mixed reactions to the act. Chris Keller, who runs the La Casa del Camino, said the law sounds good, but he wasn’t sure how much the bill would improve business in Laguna Beach.

“I’m not familiar enough with the new act to really give an opinion,” Keller said. “It doesn’t sound like it has too much meat behind it.”

On the other hand, Todd Orlich, general manager of the Montage Laguna Beach, was very pleased with the measure and its provisions for more revenue and potential jobs in the city’s hospitality industry.

“We are very proud of the work by our local representatives in getting this bill passed,” Orlich said. “Anything that supports tourism, drives additional revenues for the county and brings new job opportunities, we are in support of.”

The act is funded by $100 million in private sector contributions. The act would also add a $10 fee to the cost of the passport for foreign travelers who are from visa-waiver countries and do not pay $131 for a visa to the U.S. The money from these sources would be paid into a fund for individual cities to market themselves to foreign countries.

“What the act does is sort of a trickle-down effect, so the federal government would provide more money for us to help attract 200 million more people to visit the United States,” Bijlani said. “Normally, we cannot figure out how to market to, say, people from England, because we didn’t have enough money.”

According to the website for the Travel Promotion Act, poweroftravel.org, the new law would provide $4 billion in economic stimulus, add 40,000 new jobs worldwide and $321 million in new federal tax revenue.

A chart on the website shows that the heightened security after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has caused America to lose a significant number of international visitors.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. had 2.4 million fewer foreign visitors in 2009 than in 2000. America also lost more than $500 billion in revenue from tourist spending.

One of the key purposes of the act is to explain the post-9/11 heightened security program to foreign travelers, according to the U.S. Travel Assn.

The Travel Promotion Act was signed into law with the help of Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. Local Rep. John Campbell also helped to pass the bill.