USTA presses for removal of COVID test, faster visa processing

Tuesday, June 7, 2022

The US Travel Association praised the Biden administration’s new tourism strategy.

But it continued to press for removing the pre-arrival COVID test and for speedier visa processing.

The new National Travel and Tourism Strategy comes at an important time when international travel spending in the US was still 78% below 2019 levels in 2021, USTA President Roger Dow said.

Goal of 90m visitor arrivals by 2027


They commend the leadership of Commerce Secretary Raimondo and the Tourism Policy Council and applaud the ambitious goal of attracting 90 million visitor arrivals annually in the US by 2027.

The strategy sets out specific actions that the government can take to rebuild their travel economy and make it more globally competitive than it was before the pandemic.

Call to repeal testing requirement for international air travellers


Dow continued that there is a lot of work ahead, but the administration must start by immediately repealing the pre-departure testing requirement for all vaccinated international air travellers and taking steps to drastically lower visa wait times.

More than 40 nations have safely removed their pre-departure testing requirement and a recent survey found that 54% of international travellers were less likely to visit the US with the requirement still in place.

Average wait times for visa appointments have also soared to more than a year in some of our top source markets, which prevents millions of people from visiting.

Crew visas


Dow didn’t specifically mention seafarer visas but they have been a challenge for cruise lines during the restart, and not just in the US.

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