TIA, U.S. Commerce Department to Create Websites to Lure Visitors

The U.S. Travel Industry Association has teamed with the Department of Commence to develop a series of multi-lingual Web sites designed to encourage inbound visits to the U.S.

The Commerce Department approved $3.9 million for the project, which will be developed in cooperation with state tourism offices and convention and visitors bureaus, American Express, Travelocity, Yahoo! and Fodor’s. The TIA said it plans to build, market and maintain the first phase of sites before the end of he year.

“Research shows that people who visit our country think far more favorably of our country than those who have never been here,” said Roger Dow, TIA president and CEO. “Attracting more visitors to the U.S. will help with our image around the world and be a tremendous benefit to our overall economy.

Web sites designed for travelers in the U.K. and Canada (in English) and Japan (in English and Japanese) will be developed over the next nine months. Once those sites have been established, TIA intends to develop sites that target residents of Mexico and Germany.