In our next installment of our #HeresWhy industry Q&A sessions, we interviewed Daniel McKinnon, Vice President of Client Solutions at FreemanXP:

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Over the past few years, the United States has witnessed a growing decline in international travelers, a cause for concern with several travel organizations. Earlier this year, 10 business associations launched the Visit U.S. Coalition in an effort to reverse the growing unpopularity of the U.S. as a destination for international travelers – both business and leisure.

Since 2015, the United States is one of only two out of the top dozen destinations to see a decline in long-haul travel. Additionally, while global travel volume increased 7.9 percent from 2015 to 2017, travel to the U.S. fell 1.7 percent in the same period – the first drop after more than a decade of consistent growth.

The trend has only accelerated as President Donald Trump enacted efforts to restrict immigration. That’s why some of the travel industry’s biggest players formed the Visit U.S. Coalition to encourage the Trump administration to endorse friendlier visa and border-security policies to better promote international travel to the U.S.

Exhibitions and events rely on a healthy travel industry to conduct business. International travel not only creates jobs for the exhibitions and events industry, it also spurs economic activity in the U.S. economy through hotel stays, travel spending and other purchases of goods and services at American businesses. That’s why it’s more important than ever that the exhibitions and events industry support the efforts of the Visit U.S. Coalition and encourage our elected officials to enact policies that promote international travel to the United States.

If you are interested in advocating for the exhibitions and events industry with our elected officials, we encourage you to register for Exhibitions Day 2018. You will join hundreds of your colleagues to form a collective voice that advocates for the needs of the exhibitions and events industry. If you would like to learn more about the  Exhibitions Mean Business advocacy issues, please visit our Advocacy Center.

For more information on Visit U.S. Coalition, please visit www.visituscoalition.com.