Word: washingtonization
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...Washington-watchers expect the TPA to pass the Senate by the end of the year. Once enacted, it will create two new entities - the Office of Travel Promotion and the Corporation for Travel Promotion - to help foreign visitors actually get into the country. The offices will serve as resources for both individual travelers and the travel industry, explaining visa regulations and entry requirements, offering destination data and sponsoring marketing campaigns. Most importantly, by promoting the entire nation - rather than a specific airline or destination - TPA supporters say the bill could entice up to 1.6 million additional tourists to visit America...
...makes its way through Congress, it appears to have garnered enough support to be passed into law - and funded into action. U.S. Travel's Freeman concedes it will probably be another year before the Office of Travel Promotion is fully up and running. But he is confident that Washington will recognize the benefit of increased foreign travel to the nation's fiscal recovery. "This is the low-hanging fruit to fixing the economy," Freeman says. "It's about as obvious a solution as you can imagine - and we think Secretary Clinton and President Obama clearly recognize this...
...economies have been assiduously wooing Southeast Asia by signing free-trade agreements with the bloc, the U.S., particularly under the presidency of George W. Bush, kept ASEAN at arm's length. One reason was Burma's accession to ASEAN in 1997, which put the U.S. in a tough spot. Washington had been tightening sanctions on the Burmese junta because of its dismal human-rights record. By participating in ASEAN confabs, Bush's State Department worried that it would send an overly conciliatory message to the pariah regime...
...Singapore, Laos, Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines - cried foul. After all, the U.S. didn't boycott the United Nations just because countries like North Korea or Sudan were members. And, in truth, Burma wasn't the only factor. With more pressing foreign-policy priorities in the Middle East, Washington was naturally distracted from courting other parts of the globe. Nonetheless Southeast Asian ministers couldn't help but spot a deliberate snub when then U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice skipped two ASEAN summits that historically had been attended by a U.S. envoy...
Obama's Administration moved quickly to change the mood. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took part in the ASEAN regional forum earlier this year, pointedly announcing that ?the U.S. is back in Southeast Asia.? Since then Washington has designated an Ambassador to ASEAN, and its Southeast Asia love-fest will culminate with the Nov. 15 summit between Obama and the 10 regional leaders...