Beginning today, travelers from 36 countries (mostly developed nations like Australia, Italy and Singapore) have to shell out $14 to enter the United States' border.
The Travel Promotion Act (TPA) 36 makes this fee mandatory for visitors staying for up to 90 days (the fee is not per trip and lasts for two years). Naturally, the job of the Travel Promotion act is the promotion of travel; and chances are because the fee is so small (even a third grader can shell out $14 with his weekly allowance or lemonade stand money) this shouldn't really be a blip on travelers' radar. But as for the psychological damage? That's a totally different matter.
These 36 nations are the same ones who fall under the U.S. visa waiver program. Who can these countries thank for their "U.S. gratuity"? Why President Obama, of course, who signed the proposal into law in March, 2010. The law also required the TPA to create an Office of Travel Promotion that will be run by the Department of Commerce.
I think all these acts of taxing, tithing and siphoning of cash from travelers is just a ploy to somehow pad up the U.S. fiscal deficit, but for heaven's sake, did no one in Congress realize that this TPA law has just about pissed off half of the world that was mad at the United States to begin with?
Apparently the European Union is considering levying $10 to U.S. visitors as a rebuttal.
These 36 countries give quite a bit of tourist dollars to the United States, as you might guess, but American's immigration laws are so much more stringent (post 9/11) than the European Union, for example, which doesn't even require forms or hoops to jump through in order to visit. Will the TPA actually promote travel instead of detract from it?
But this Act is specifically designed to promote the U.S. to foreign visitors. The fee, capped at $100 million, would be matched by the private sector and potentially create a revenue pool of $200 million. In a nutshell, this $14 per visitor fee will be used to create jobs in a recession-scarred sector and ultimately designed to promote programs to lure visitors to the U.S.
Is this the chicken or the egg syndrome? Seriously, is the United States going for ad campaigns along the lines of Jamaica or Aruba?
It is an interesting question and will lead to interesting answers. For now, the now almost completely tattered value of the U.S. dollar should be green light enough for tourist's pocketbook.
- Charu Suri