By Tom McClimon
November 11, 2008

The Bush Administration has undertaken a number of initiatives recently to ease the travel of domestic and foreign visitors. They include the expansion of the Visa Waiver and Global Entry Programs and the unveiling of a new Secure Flight program to help reduce the misidentifications of travelers. “For too long, we have dealt with these issues in a piecemeal fashion and have not addressed the needs of travelers in a comprehensive manner,” stated Conference of Mayors President Miami Mayor Manny Diaz. Last month, the mayors held a Mayors Action Forum on Arts and Tourism focused on the challenges the next President will have to spur travel and tourism to America’s cities. These three actions announced by the Administration are part of the mayors’ recommendations that arose from that Forum.

On October 17, President Bush announced that seven countries will be admitted to the U.S. Visa Waiver Program: South Korea, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. Twenty'seven other countries are currently admitted to the program.

“The nation’s mayors are pleased that President Bush has expanded the Visa Waiver Program to seven more countries. Such a move will have a great economic impact on our cities and country. We will be urging the new President to expand the program further, especially to Western Hemisphere countries that currently have not Visa Waiver Program with the United States.” Diaz added.

Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, Chairman of the USCM Standing Committee on Tourism, Arts, Parks, Entertainment and Sports, has long pushed for such waivers. “The future of the world is in the Asia Pacific, so it only stands to reason that granting waivers for more of these countries will benefit the U.S. and Hawaii,” said Hannemann. It is estimated that the number of visitors from South Korea to the U.S. could double over the next few years under this program.

The Visa Waiver Program, established by Congress in 1986, permits business and leisure travelers from selected countries to visit the U.S. for up to 90 days without the expense and delay in obtaining a nonimmigrant visitor visa. In 2006, approximately 14 million overseas visitors arriving in the U.S. originated from one of the 27 countries participating in the Visa Waiver Program, representing approximately two-thirds of all overseas visitors.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has expanded the Global Entry program to four additional airports: Los Angeles International, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, Chicago O’Hare International, and Miami International.

The Global Entry program allows for pre-approved, low-risk travelers expedited clearance upon arrival into the United States. Global Entry-approved participants bypass the regular passport control line and proceed directly to the Global Entry kiosk. The process allows participants to present their machine-readable U.S. Passport or permanent residency card along with their fingerprints for biometric verification and customs declaration at a kiosk touch screen. Upon successful completion of the process, the traveler will be issued a transaction receipt which must be presented to a Customs and Borders Protection Officer upon leaving the inspection area.

The new Global Entry sites are expected to be operational in the Fall and will be joined with Global Entry sites all ready in operation at John F. Kennedy International, George Bush International and Washington-Dulles International.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on October 22 announced the issuance of the Secure Flight program, which shifts pre-departure watch list responsibilities from individual airlines to the Transportation Security Administration. By bringing watch list matching responsibilities in-house and all together, TSA hopes to better remedy misidentifications when a traveler’s name is similar to one found on a watch list.

Airlines will be required under Secure Flight to collect a passenger’s full name, date of birth, and gender when making an airline reservation. The encrypted information will be transmitted to TSA which will run it against the watch lists. Currently, the airlines compare the names on manifests with the no-fly lists often resulting in delays and misidentifications.

Secure Flight will be implemented in two phases. The program will assume responsibility for passengers on domestic flights in early 2009. In late 2009, the program will be in effect for passengers on international flights.

Currently, there are about 2,500 people on the “no-fly” list with only about ten percent being U.S. citizens. Fewer than 16,000 people worldwide are on the “selected” list, which pose a less specific security threat but are allowed to fly.