by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 9:56 AM ET, Tue December 20, 2022
Following the late night passage of the Fiscal Year 2023 omnibus spending bill by the federal government on December 19, 2022, the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) released a statement providing information on how it will positively impact travel advisors and the travel industry community as a whole.
The United States is currently the only G20 country in the world without a federal agency or cabinet-level official in charge of tourism policy.
The new spending bill includes the addition of an Assistant Secretary of Travel and Tourism within the U.S. Department of Commerce under its Visit America Act/Omnibus Travel and Tourism Act, something ASTA lobbied for this past summer during the ASTA Legislative Day when approximately 225 travel advisors and suppliers representing the organization shared their stories with Congress, leading the number of cosponsors for the bill to triple in the week to follow.
"During the COVID-19 pandemic, travel advisors had a front-row seat to the scattered nature of federal oversight of the travel industry. Contending with numerous federal agencies and ever-changing, and sometimes conflicting, rules regarding travel while struggling to keep their businesses alive put unnecessary and avoidable hardships on travel advisors," said ASTA's Executive Vice President of Advocacy, Eben Peck. "Creating a high-level leadership position within the federal government focused on travel industry concerns, as this legislation does, would protect the industry from unnecessary setbacks due to conflicting and confusing policy decisions in the future."
"Specifically, the legislation establishes an Assistant Secretary of Travel and Tourism within the U.S. Department of Commerce to provide high-level leadership, accountable to Congress, working effectively across federal agencies to develop and implement national strategies and policies that grow travel. Surprisingly, the U.S. is the only G20 country without a federal agency or cabinet-level official in charge of tourism policy. The bill would also require Commerce to develop and implement a COVID-19 public health emergency recovery strategy to assist the U.S. travel and tourism industry to quickly recover from the pandemic," continued Peck.
The President of the United States has yet to sign the bill into law as of the morning of December 20, 2022.
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