• Brandweek, Friday, April 20, 2007 12 PM

The Travel Industry Association hopes to launch DiscoverAmerica.com--the country's official travel and tourism Web site -- next February in an effort to attract international tourists and business travelers. It initially will target the five biggest sources of visitors: United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Germany and Mexico.

The U.S. has lost $94 billion in visitor spending as inbound traffic from abroad declined 17% between 2001 and 2005, according to the Commerce Dept. As the only industrialized country without a national tourism brand, Uncle Sam is competing against countries that spend much more and in many instances have government-subsidized campaigns.

The initiative was jump-started when the Commerce Dept. handed the travel trade group $3.9 million in February to build a self-sustaining marketing tool for U.S. tourism within two years. The deal requires the TIA -- which is comprised of more than 2,100 companies from every travel category -- to match 25% of the award value with cash and in-kind contributions.

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