Earlier this week, the world's busiest airport, Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International (ATL), joined forces with the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau and Georgia Tourism to launch Brand USA's Market the Welcome program, welcoming travelers through the international arrival process.
"Brand USA and its partners can provide the most inspirational and compelling storytelling about our country to travelers from around the world," said Christopher L. Thompson, Brand USA president and CEO. "That story begins the moment international travelers arrive in the United States. We have an ideal opportunity to extend our hospitality and thank our guests for choosing the USA for their travel experiences.
"The Atlanta airport presents great possibilities for conveying our welcome to international visitors and inviting them to discover the nearly limitless number of authentic travel experiences that the USA offers."
The initiative, devised by Brand USA as the United States' destination-marketing organization, aims to inspire travelers to visit and experience all that the state of Georgia and its capital city have to offer.
Arrivals to the airport's international Terminal F are greeted by 29 large panels scattered throughout the gate area, with each panel featuring high-impact, inspirational imagery and welcoming language tailored to the area's tourism market.
Welcoming messages in multiple languages, including Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, German, and Simplified Chinese, (in addition to English), ensure international travelers will experience Southern hospitality from the moment they land.
"Hospitality is ingrained in Atlanta's culture, and the Market the Welcome campaign allows our city to offer an immediate greeting to international travelers upon arrival," said William Pate, president and CEO, Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau.
"As home to the world's busiest airport and a global gateway to the United States, Atlanta now has an even greater opportunity to maximize on the visitor experience."
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has been the world's busiest airport for 19 consecutive years.
Last year, more than 104 million passengers passed through the airport, representing a 2.6-percent increase over 2015. Travelers who fly into Atlanta are within a two-hour flight of 80-percent of the US population.
Atlanta joined four other airports in the Market the Welcome program-Miami International Airport (MIA), Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) and Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY).
"We are excited to be a part of the Market the Welcome campaign that will allow us to provide travelers with a taste of our southern hospitality as soon as they arrive in Georgia," said Kevin Langston, Georgia Department of Economic Development's deputy commissioner for tourism.
"This program showcases some of the many unique stories of our state, and I know it will inspire our international visitors to set out and explore all that we have to offer. The international connections to and from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport has allowed Georgia to welcome the world and we are ready to greet them."
The initiative is an important part of US tourism marketing. During 2016 the country welcomed more than 75.6 million international visitors-the second highest level of international arrivals to date.
All told, those visitors spent nearly $245 billion.
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