Brand USA Announces Quarterly Board Meeting and New Board Appointees

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The next Brand USA board meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 19, 2014. The board meeting will focus on the organization's accomplishments to date and upcoming initiatives, as it enters into its third year of operation.

Brand USA is the public-private partnership responsible for promoting international travel to the United States. The effort is designed to fuel the United States' economy and spur job growth. Its formation marked the launch of the United States' first fully-integrated international tourism marketing effort. Brand USA seeks to position the United States as a premiere international travel destination in support of the National Travel and Tourism Strategy goal of attracting 100 million international visitors annually to the United States by 2021.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker appoints the Brand USA Board of Directors in consultation with the Departments of Homeland Security and State. The board is made up of 11 industry experts from diverse regions of the country representing ten different sectors of the travel industry. Each member serves a three year term. In fall 2013, Secretary Pritzker made two new appointments and two reappointments to the four board positions that were open for appointment.

The newly appointed and reappointed members include:

• Randy Garfield, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Travel Operations, Disney Destinations and President, Walt Disney Travel Company (reappointment to attractions or recreations)
• Andrew Greenfield, Partner, Fragomen, Del Rey, Bersen and Loewy, LLP (new appointment to immigration law and policy)
• Barbara Richardson, Chief of Staff, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (new appointment to inter-city passenger rail)
• Mark Schwab, Chief Executive Officer, Star Alliance Services (reappointment to passenger air sector)

For the full list of board members, please visit www.TheBrandUSA.com.

According to a recently-published report by Oxford Economics, Brand USA's FY13 marketing campaigns generated 1.1 million incremental visitors to the United States—a 2.3% increase over growth that would have occurred without Brand USA marketing initiatives. These additional visitors spent $3.4 billion in the United States, including travel and U.S. carrier fare receipts.

This spending fueled the U.S. economy by generating $7.4 billion in business sales, $3.8 billion in GDP, $2.2 billion in personal income and supported 53,000 new jobs. The results equate to a marketing return on investment of 47:1. The study includes analysis of eight markets – Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Mexico and the United Kingdom – where Brand USA fully executed consumer, trade outreach and co-op programs.

In the coming year, the consumer marketing campaign will run in 11 markets that generate more than 80% of all inbound travel to the United States. Brand USA also has travel trade outreach in 20 markets that comprise 90% of all inbound travel to the United States.

Brand USA's partners continue to increase their support of the effort. During FY13, Brand USA formed partnerships with more than 300 organizations that contributed more than $130 million to the nation's marketing efforts. This more than doubled the level of contributions from FY12 and led to a 97% partnership retention rate. Brand USA enjoys partner support across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The travel and tourism industry supports nearly 8 million jobs and accounts for 2.8 percent of the nation's GDP. In 2012, international spending in the U.S. topped $165 billion. The United States has enjoyed a trade surplus in the travel and tourism sector since 1989.

To learn more about the Department of Commerce's ongoing efforts to promote international travel and tourism, visit http://travel.trade.gov.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Camila Clark
Brand USA
202-735-2305
443-280-1794
[email protected]

About Brand USA
Brand USA is the public-private partnership responsible for promoting the United States as a premier travel destination and communicating U.S. entry/exit policies and procedures. Established by the Travel Promotion Act in 2010, the organization's mission is to increase international visitation to the United States while working in partnership with the travel industry to maximize the economic and social benefits of travel. These benefits include creating jobs essential to the economy and fostering understanding between people and cultures.

For industry or partner information about Brand USA, visit www.TheBrandUSA.com. For information about travel to and around the United States, please visit Brand USA's consumer website at www.DiscoverAmerica.com.

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SOURCE Brand USA