Geoff Freeman travel tips

Automatic refunds for significant flight disruptions, fee-free family seating and accessibility improvements.

In a promising economic development, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) June Consumer Price Index (CPI) report shows a notable reduction in inflation overall, with travel-related costs leading the way. For the second consecutive month, the travel sector has experienced a more significant price drop than the overall economy.

June’s CPI data indicates broad inflation easing, led by a notable 1.4% decline in travel-related costs (hotel, airline, gas) as per the U.S. Travel TPI, outpacing the overall economy’s modest 0.1% decrease.

Congress has passed a bipartisan bill to reauthorize Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) programs by overwhelming majorities in both the House and the Senate, leading to greater protections for travelers.

Could the summer air travel season be impacted by a potential Congressional amendment?

Los Angeles, California — The United States has “serious problems” when it comes to international inbound travel that must be resolved if the country is to regain its competitive edge.That’s the assessment of the U.S. Travel Association and its leader Geoff Freeman, the organization’s president and CEO.Freeman delivered his sober take on the problems plaguing inbound travel to the United States during a press conference today in Los Angeles, California where a travel industry convention is taking place.“The United States remains the world’s most desired nation to visit, but at the end of 2019 we had 79 million visitors internationally and in 2023 we had 67 million international visitors," Freeman told the media gathered for the IPW 2024 convention. “That’s only 84 percent of pre-pandemic levels.”“When you look at travel as an export - before the pandemic we had a 12 billion [person] travel trade surplus. At end of last year we had about a 50 billion [person] travel trade deficit,” Freeman added.There's a handful of challenges that the United States currently faces when it comes to attracting international visitors and significantly ramping up inbound numbers, said Freeman. And some of those challenges are within the country’s ability to fix, while others are not.There’s not much that can be done, for instance, about the strength of the U.S. dollar, which makes this country very expensive to visit from many other parts of the world. Similarly, there’s not much U.S. officials can do about the current prohibitions surrounding flights over Russian airspace, which pose a major obstacle for airlines coming to this country from China.However, visa wait times continue to be a significant roadblock for international visitors — and that’s an issue U.S. officials can — and should — be able to fix, Freeman said.“On the visa side, I checked this morning — if you're a Columbian and want to come to the U.S. the wait times are over 600 days to get an interview at a U.S. consulate,” said Freeman. “If you’re in Mexico, the wait times are over 800 days.”By contrast, for visitors from India the wait timeline for visa interviews has recently been reduced to a somewhat more reasonable 150 to 200 days. Similarly, wait times for those visiting from Brazil have been reduced drastically — from what was once 500 days down to just 21 days, according to the U.S. Travel Association.“It shows us that it can be done. When the State Department uses their ingenuity and gets creative and puts resources in the right places, this problem can be solved,” explained Freeman. “But it’s been going on for far too long. It needs to be solved now.”

The U.S. Senate passed key government funding bills Friday evening — with one that included “up to $3.5 million of funding for the office of the assistant secretary of commerce for travel and tourism.

The U.S. Travel Association is praising President Joe Biden's administration this winter after the U.S. Departments of State and Homeland Security moved to extend the visa interview waiver authority for low-risk applicants ahead of its previous December 31 expiration.The decision comes one month after the organization sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas urging both agencies to extend the visa interview waiver authority, which gives consular officers the discretion to waive in-person interviews for certain low-risk nonimmigrant visa applications.These eligible applicants have previously visited the U.S. and are still subject to the same strenuous background checks and screening that all nonimmigrants receive.

For the first time, Detroit will serve as host site of U.S. Travel’s IPW, the leading international inbound travel trade show and largest generator of travel to the United States, the association announced today. IPW will be held in the city on June 10-14, 2028.

Wait times for first-time visitor visas in Colombia, Mexico and India stretching to hundreds of days will continue to be a headache for the U.S. travel industry. 

The U.S. and China will improve air connectivity and streamline visa processing, said Chinese President Xi Jinping in public remarks on Wednesday. Xi made the remarks at a dinner hosted by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and US-China Business Council. 

The U.S. Travel Association has eliminated the positions of six employees as it restructures the organization, according to an internal memo obtained by Skift and confirmed by the association.

The U.S. can’t effectively compete for tourists if there isn’t energy at the federal level toward tackling issues like excessive visa wait times, upgrading outdated airports and staffing the TSA and FAA.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, October 31. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Some countries, including the United States, have yet to make a full tourism recovery from the pandemic, and lengthy waits for visitor visas are one reason why. Several travel executives have argued that those long waits have hurt the ability to attract visitors.

India was the U.S.’ s second top market for travelers outside of North America between April and June, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office’s data released Monday. Over 500,000 Indian travelers came to the America in the those three months, up from 392,000 and 498,000 for the same period in 2022 and pre-pandemic 2019, respectively.

India was the U.S.’ s second top market for travelers outside of North America between April and June, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office’s data released Monday. Over 500,000 Indian travelers came to the America in the those three months, up from 392,000 and 498,000 for the same period in 2022 and pre-pandemic 2019, respectively.

Puerto Rico is launching a new marketing campaign aimed at travelers who were forced to delay or cancel trips because they couldn’t get their passport in time.

The U.S. travel industry shouldn’t get its hopes up that the newly created assistant secretary of travel and tourism position will make the U.S. more globally competitive, said U.S. Travel CEO and President Geoff Freeman at the Skift Global Forum.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, October 4. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Long wait times for visas and an outdated air infrastructure hobble the U.S.’s ability to attract travelers, said executives at the Skift Global Forum.