The land of hopes and dreams is putting its faith in a new advertising campaign to lure tourists back to its shores.
Brand USA, a partnership of government agencies and private companies, has been launched in America in an attempt to boost traveller numbers to the continent.
This is the first time the US has marketed itself as a tourist destination, as the country attempts to claw back visitor numbers in the “lost decade” after the 9/11 attacks.
Tighter traveller restrictions after the terrorist attacks in New York meant that the EU benefited from redirected tourism from countries such as China.
This has reduced America’s share of global tourist spending from 17 per cent in 2000, to just over 11 per cent today. In 2011 just 6 per cent of global tourists visited the country, leaving the US trailing behind countries such as France.
According to the US Travel Association, the average overseas visitor to the United States spends $4,000 per trip, and America is keen to capitalise on this figure with its Brand USA ad campaign. Canadian visitors to the US generated $24 billion of tourist capital for the US in 2011.
Brand USA will spend $12.3 million on advertising in the next three months, and show ads in countries with top-spending tourists including Japan, Canada and the UK. The campaign will then roll out to Brazil, South Korea and a small number of additional markets.
The print ads for the campaign feature pictures of various iconic US locations including New Orleans’s French Quarter and the Redwood Preserve in California with the tag line “Discover this land like never before”.
The video ad’s soundtrack features a song called “Land of Dreams,” with singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash, the daughter of country music icon Johnny Cash.
“Dollars are tight today and we want to be very thoughtful about where and when we spend them,” said Stephen Cloobeck, the chairman of Brand USA and CEO of Diamond Resorts International. “But we’re doing all this with a smile and a sign that says ‘Welcome to the United States.’”
(Images: Krakers, MiguelVieira)
