Brand USA Tale of the Tape: Moving the Measure Upward

The board of directors of the Corporation for National Travel Promotion—better known by its DBA, Brand USA—were flush with good numbers at its most recent meeting this month. Without even a marketing plan for its first year of operation, the private-public sector agency has moved into second five years of operation with measurable data—data that charts the progress that it has made, as well as the specific objectives.

 Website Traffic Goal: 1 million/week by end of 2016: The numbers below have mostly to do with discoveramerica.com; however, next year Brand USA hopes to effect a migration to VisitUSA.com—a move made for many reasons, not the least of which is that product brands in other Americas (Central America, South America, North America) do not give BUSA an exclusive handle on the name. Prior to the Travel Promotion Act that was signed into law in 2010, “Visit USA” had been an unofficial, but de facto, brand for the Visit USA product. Extensive study by Brand USA confirmed the fact and, buttressed by other factors, the agency made the move. Its target is to get website traffic and social media engagements close to the million-a-week mark by the end of 2016.

Brand USA Website and Social Engagement Totals

“Intent to Visit” Number Moves upward: Brand USA expects that the overall sample of travelers will contain more people who register their intent to travel to USA during the course of 2016.

Intent to Visit USA among Travelers Surveyed

Increasing the “Money Number”: There were 1.1 billion international travelers in 2014, according to the World Tourism Organization and roughly three quarters of that was short-haul, regional travel internationally. Long-haul travelers comprise the rest—a very substantial number that should soon close in on the 300 million mark. The USA lost market share of the world’s long haul market in the 1990s and through the first decade of the 21st century and each uptick of a tenth of a percent becomes, then, a significant number. It is difficult to determine if the uptick is entirely a result of Brand USA efforts, but no one taking part in the Brand USA board meeting doubted that the number would decline without its efforts.

USA Long-Haul Market Share

Cash Contributions Close to Equal with In-Kind: Although the language of the Travel Protection Act gives Brand USA the ability to get up to 80 percent of the $100 million it raises (to qualify for a 1:1 ratio in funds collected from Visa Waiver Program nations in the form of a levy on ESTA applications), Brand USA is striving to make the percentage equal to the in-kind contributions it seeks. More cash, understandably, gives the agency more flexibility in developing program content and collateral, rather than asking industry partners to produce and pay for the same.

Cash vs. In-Kind Contributions