Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 110 Part 5.djvu/328

 110 STAT. 3402 PUBLIC LAW 104-288—OCT. 11, 1996 Public Law 104-288 104th Congress An Act Oct. 11, 1996 To establish the National Tourism Board and the National Tourism Organization [H.R. 2579] ^ promote international travel and tourism to the United States. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of United States the United States of America in Congress assembled. National Tourism Organization Act SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. of 1996. 22 USC 2141 This Act may be cited as the "United States National Tourism note. Organization Act of 1996". 22 USC 2141. SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. (a) FINDINGS.— The Congress finds that— (1) The travel and tourism industry is the second largest service and retail industry in the United States, and travel and tourism services ranked as the largest United States export in 1995, generating an $18.6 billion surplus for the United States. (2) Domestic and international travel and tourism expenditures totaled $433 billion in 1995, $415 billion spent directly within the United States and an additional $18 biliion spent by international travelers on United States carriers traveling to the United States. (3) Direct travel and tourism receipts make up 6 percent of the United States gross domestic product. (4) In 1994, the travel and tourism industry was the nation's second largest employer, directly responsible for 6.3 milUon jobs and indirectly responsible for another 8 million jobs. (5) Emplo3anent in major sectors of the travel and tourism industry is expected to increase 35 percent by the year 2005. (6) 99.7 percent of travel businesses are defined by the Federal government as small businesses. (7) The White House Conference on Travel and Tourism in 1995 recommended the establishment of a new national tourism organization to represent and promote international travel and tourism to the United States. (8) Recent Federal tourism promotion efforts have failed to stem the rapid erosion of our country's international tourism market share. (9) In fact, the United States' share of worldwide travel receipts dropped from a peak of 19.3 percent in 1992 down to 15.7 percent by the end of 1994. (10) The United States has now fallen to only the third leading international destination.

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