On April 1, 2008, CTTC President and Chief Executive Officer Caroline Beteta began her term as the National Chair of the Travel Industry Association (TIA), most recently merged with the Travel Business Roundtable to become the U.S. Travel Association. U.S. Travel represents leaders from nearly all major travel-related companies, state travel and tourism offices, dozens of the top U.S. convention and visitors bureaus, and nearly all of the major travel associations. The organization serves as the leading advocate for increasing travel to and within the United States and provides its members with valuable research, events and marketing.

In this role, our President and CEO is charged with oversight of the U.S. Travel Board of Directors, the governing body of the association, and its Executive Committee. The association’s members, consisting of more than 1,500 travel industry peers and colleagues, annually elect the National Chairperson, so this election serves as a evidence to California's leadership in the travel industry ranks.

As California is the number one travel destination in the nation, policy and programming that benefits the U.S. will ultimately benefit the California tourism industry. By leading U.S. Travel, CTTC works on the national level to:

• Build and communicate the most compelling case possible as to why travel matters to individuals, businesses and policymakers.
• Firmly establish travel and the travel community as an ally to President Obama on economic and diplomatic issues.
• Implement policies to increase international inbound travel.
• Expand the U.S. Travel Association’s domestic issue expertise and participation.
• Establish the travel community as a greater political force.

With CTTC President and CEO Beteta participating as the National Chair of U.S. Travel, California is posed to plan, develop, and implement the policies and programs. The National Chair Platform includes three areas:

• Expanding U.S. Travel's public affairs focus
• Successfully launching DiscoverAmerica.com, the official travel and tourism Web site of the United States
• Becoming the champion of travel and the traveler, while continuing to position travel and tourism as an economic engine for local, state and national economies.

Expand U.S. Travel's Public Affairs Focus
In 2008-2009, CTTC devoted time and effort around H.R. 3232, the “Travel Promotion Act of 2008” (TPA), which would establish a public-private partnership to promote the United States as a premier international travel destination and communicate U.S. security and entry policies. The TPA was passed by the House of Representatives in September, due largely to the efforts of the California tourism industry during eleventh hour legislative negotiations spearheaded by National Chair Beteta.

In November 2008, the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) was expanded to include travelers from seven new countries, which is estimated to bring approximately one million new visitors to the United States annually. CTTC has also worked to successfully implement the new Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA).

During 2008-2009, National Chair Beteta worked with industry leaders to assure the merger of TIA with the Travel Business Roundtable into U.S. Travel to further intensify the voice of America's $740 billion travel industry (see attachments). Additionally, U.S. Travel created a Political Action Committee (“PAC”) to enhance its leadership on behalf of the entire travel community.

Other priorities and successes on the public policy front facilitated by National Chair Beteta include, but are not limited to:

• Asserting the broader travel community voice in the growing debate on domestic air travel reform.
• Obtaining $10 million for the DHS Global Entry program, which offers expedited security screening to arriving international passengers.
• Obtaining $8.75 million to hire more U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers to improve security and speed passenger processing at America's international airports.
• Obtaining $1 million to hire additional staff to manage expansion of the Visa Waiver Program.
• Launching poweroftravel.org, the industry's first online resource on travel's economic impact at the federal, state and local levels.
• Conducting a “Travel Summit" with Secretaries of Homeland Security, Commerce and numerous high-ranking Members of Congress on important travel issues.
• Creating the "Change the Debate" campaign and enhanced focus on travel issues by Senators Obama and McCain and other 2008 presidential candidates.
• Positioning the travel community as a resource to the incoming Obama Administration through a unique transition Web page and briefing papers.
• Working with industry leaders to assure the merger of TIA with the Travel Business Roundtable into U.S. Travel to further intensify the voice of America's $740 billion travel industry.

For 2009-2010, a second merger of U.S. Travel and the Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) will further intensify and strengthen the voice of the travel industry as a whole.

Additionally, National Chair Beteta and CTTC will focus on the growing crisis regarding business travel. In 2008, some companies that received emergency government funding were vilified for maintaining their performance incentive programs and following through on planned meetings and events. As a result, numerous businesses have chosen to cancel thousands of meetings and events across the country. USA TODAY reports that the meetings, events and incentive travel planners report that business is down by about 35%. A decline in meetings and events will – quite simply – cost people their livelihoods and negatively impact companies, including hotels, restaurants, florists and thousands of others.

CTTC will be taking a leadership role in advocating for public policy to assure threatening issues such as these are brought into the light through the various communications vehicles available, media, events, industry outreach, etc.

• Integration of public policy messaging in to events, speeches, media releases, business media desk sides, industry outreach functions and increased coalition building.
• Media equivalency and number of industry in attendance at events will be the most measureable.
• Assure that the Travel Promotion Act is signed into law.
• Expand the VWP into Argentina and Brazil.
• Support DHS ESTA implementation, highlight concerns, and find solutions to keep this momentum moving forward positively.
• Develop a domestic Web site to help drive consumers to state and local destinations.