Foreign travel agent tours....... ... $ 33 $ 17 $ 16 The increase will provide for a new series of agent familiarization tours designed to acquaint selected Japanese retail travel agents with actual tours developed by Japanese wholesalers and USTS under the tour development proIt has been shown that this enables them to more effectively sell the tours developed. gram. Activity: Promotion of travel to the United States These The requested increase will provide for two new positions, a GS-14 Advertising Manager, and a GS-6 Secretary. positions are associated with the expansion of the advertising program in support of tour package development, and are required to ensure that the advertising program in each market is carefully designed to tie into the package tours to the U. S. being developed. Additionally, the Advertising Manager would be responsible for evaluation of of applications for matching funds for advertising. The two new positions will require an increase in FY 1974 of $20,000. This will be offset by a $26,000 decrease in the estimate for support services (handling of special requests for information) resulting from USTS discontinuation of directly serving the public. USTS-15 Consumer advertising. - $1,258 $2.283 $1,025 new Supplemental funds requested for media advertising will be used to promote tour packages produced under the tour development programs proposed for each market. traveler "into the store" The purpose of the advertising is to get the potential the retail travel agency where the newly developed tours are sold. will be described. Specific tours The names and addresses of travel agencies retailing the new tours will appear in a substantial portion of the advertisements. Coupons will also appear so that readers may send in for additional information including a list of the names and addresses of retail agencies where the new tour offerings are sold. Coupons returned by potential visitors will be available to individual agencies for use as sales leads and in follow-up direct mail campaigns. The requested increase is $1,025,000, of which $169,000 has been transferred from the matching funds program, and $138,000 has been transferred from printing of brochures and displays. Funds will be used to purchase professional advertising services including production, purchase of media space in newspapers and magazines, and broadcast time primarily on television. Currently, there are no consumer advertising campaigns in Japan and France where they will have to be introduced. In addition, there is a need for expansion of advertising in the other countries to support the tours developed. The advertising will be concentrated in the population centers of the six markets. USTS-16 The requested increase of $13,000 will provide for two additional positions, a GS-11 Familiarization Tours Specialist and a GS-5 Familiarization Tours Assistant. The familiarization tour program is the only way foreign tour wholesalers or travel agents can effectively become familiar with the product the USTS wants to sell. An effective foreign tour package development program is not possible without an effective familiarization program. Familiarization tours for the travel industry must be carefully planned, prearranged and coordinated with state tourism officials to assure maximum utilization of resources and time. Because of the much larger number of foreign travel wholesalers and agents now entering the VISIT USA market a greater number of these travel professionals need to be better acquainted with and equipped to sell the USA. The number of familiarization tours is expected to triple resulting in the need for staff increases. 23-962 457 Special emphasis will be given to researching, writing, translating, and distributing factual information packages about U. S. travel destinations and facilities to foreign publications for their use in regular news and travel columns at no space cost to the U. S. Government. This will supplement existing paid advertising programs. The requested increase will provide for an additional position, GS-11 Writer-Editor to be responsible for preparation of these information packages. is reduced by $8,000 as a result of the decision not to add in FY 1974 two foreign Beginning this year, $210,000 in supplemental funds will be used to begin augmenting and expanding uniformed corps These corps are now functioning, part time, at major gateways: New York, of multilingual port receptionists. Seattle, San Juan, Philadelphia, Miami and Washington, D. C. However, full-time year-round corps are needed at these USTS-17 new by foreign visitors under the new tours to be developed during 1974. It is desirable to have the program under operation for a year before the increase in visitors expected in 1975. The and other ports which will be most heavily used The requested funds would cities are Honolulu, Guam, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Dallas. enable USTS this year to establish a nucleus of three full-time receptionists at each of seven ports to be supplemented during the peak vacation periods by student receptionist programs to be operational by the summer of 1974. to initiate this program at the beginning of calendar year 1974. It is the intention The $16,000 increase in basic date will be used for a competitive analysis study undertaken to enable USTS to be The resulting information will be used as input informed of new programs and expenditures of its major competitors. in new tour development projects in order to assure that tours developed to the U. S. are competitive in all aspects with tours offered the individual traveler to other destinations. USTS-18 The requested increase which totals $22,000 will provide for a GS-14 Travel Trade Relations Specialist. The USTS-19 |