IMPORTANT LEGISLATION MOVES FOWARD

VERY IMPORTANT legislation is making its way through the US Senate with support in the US House. This bill would establish a non-profit agency to promote tourism in the US.,

Many international governments aggresively help tourism in their countries subsidizing promotional campaigns and programs. The United States leaves that work up to travel agencies, individual hotels, resorts and attractions as well as some State governments.

" This is SO important to us," says William Talbert III, president of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. It has taken 7 years for South Florida to see international tourism to rebound to pre- 9-11 terrorist attack numbers. Why is this important? Miami is the ONLY major tourist destination in the United States that relies on foreigners for over half of its overnight visitors. Miami is truly one of the worlds top International destinations. Numerous studies have been done that support the economic reasoning behind this funding. Independent audits show that an additional 1.6 million visitors would result from this program. The average expenditure of a foreign visitor to the US is $4,500. That is about 800 million additional dollars into the economy annually. In addition, for South Florida, we find that a number of visitors return year after year and over 40% of foreign buyers of our real estate first came here as a tourist. The top four tourist destination cities in the nation are New York City, Miami, San Francsico and Los Angeles.