International Travel Update by John Dersham

In recent years tourism has been a bright spot in the economy. During our recession of 2008 and the continued slow economy, tourism has in most areas of the country maintained itself at former numbers and in many areas there has been modest growth. Alabama has showed some growth throughout this period. Due to the success of tourism our federal government has decided to focus on growing the International travel market to the US. The last time the United States had an International travel advertising campaign was 1992. This year a series of very well done TV ads can be seen in 18 countries. Our International travelers tend to stay here longer and spend more money than do tourist traveling within the US. Tourism in the US is a $3.1 Trillion dollar business and it employees 750 million Americans. Tourism jobs cannot be outsourced to another country. Think about it. Our friends that work in the tourism industry here in DeKalb in hotels or at attractions like Sequoyah Caverns, DeSoto State Park or Little River Canyon National Preserve… there is no moving those to China. Gaining more international travel will greatly help our economy. I encourage you to go to the Brand USA website and view these very well done commercials.  www.thebrandUSA.com

In addition to the Obama administration and the National Travel Council there are regional and state tourism departments that are working in conjunction with Brand USA to bring international visitors into the more rural parts of the US. This November, Travel South USA will host its first international travel showcase in Atlanta. This event will bring in tourism departments, travel planners, group tour promoters, hotels and attractions from all over the world to work with travel planners in the US to formulate interesting international trips to the US. We are encouraged by the focus on international travel and feel our area will be a side excursion for international travelers coming to the southeast looking for the more rural “Americana” experience. There is some work being done to offer our National Parks as travel gateways to the more rural areas of the US.

Even without a government sanctioned international travel plan we have still been getting international travelers to our area. In the late winter and early spring we see quite a few people coming through our information center that are snowbirds or they are visiting from the UK, Germany or other middle and northern European countries. We are also getting quite a few people from South America and some from Japan and other Asian countries.