U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, daughter of the Hyatt Hotels' founder, was at the World Travel and Tourism Council's Global Summit last week to promote the importance of travel and tourism to the economy. Pritzker sat down with News Editor Johanna Jainchill to discuss how the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) makes us safer, and the future of U.S. travel policy post-Obama.
Q: There's been a lot of talk here about challenges to the VWP. Is it seriously at risk?
Penny Pritzker
A: We've had 75.3 million people visit from around the world spending $217 billion on goods and services here and supporting 1.1 million jobs. ... Something I keep hammering to everyone in the administration is we can do hospitality and national security at the same time. That has really become a mantra of our administration. The president's No. 1 responsibility is securing the country and making sure that our people are safe, but it's also making sure we have a vibrant economy. The issue with visa waiver is to make sure that we can do the kind of vetting with travelers, and with electronic systems you can do a lot without making it intrusive. We have to have the systems set up and the governments agree to various protocols. ... It's my job to emphasize that.
Q: You called on people here to take action at home to help the industry. What do you want?
A: I think they need to adopt the kind of technological systems and policies that support the sharing of information that's necessary so that the VWP can enhance security, and specifically supporting the passenger-name records sharing throughout the [European Union Schenghen zone] is critical. The other thing they can do is lobby their governments to expand and promote trusted-traveler programs they've got in [other countries] that are all good and effective programs. We just don't have enough people doing them.
Q: You point out that inbound tourism has grown 37% under Obama. Are you concerned progress will roll back under a new administration?
A: From our standpoint, we've elevated within the Department of Commerce the role of the National Travel and Tourism office. It's funded and it's not going to go away. What's important is for the industry to engage seriously with the government apparatus that exists. And the strategy is not going to go away, it's now ingrained. So now what's important is we exercise those muscles and use the mechanisms that we put in place.
Q: Does your background in hospitality give you a better understanding of the importance of tourism to our economy?
A: The biggest edge we have is that the president has made this a priority. ... I think it helps that I'm a businessperson and I can explain the business and economic benefit and the jobs benefit, because every single person, whether they are in Commerce or in one of our National Security Agencies, knows how important the strength of our economy is, and that it is important to our national security.
Q: One of the presidential candidates is also from hospitality. Could that be a positive for tourism policy?
A: What's important is that we have a leader who understands the many sectors of our economy, tourism included. And understands that governments around the world have to work together to solve the challenges that we're facing in the 21st century, like the refugee crisis or the growth of terrorism, and that that's not something that a country can do alone.