Senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, shown speaking in New York last year, says President Barack Obama's previous statements about Las Vegas were blown out of proportion and that vacationing here is "a terrific way to relax and enjoy yourself."
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Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, admitted that “secretary of tourism” has a nice ring to it.
Jarrett said one thing she will take away from this week’s Global Travel and Tourism Summit at Aria is that the U.S. tourism industry is a significant enough economic engine that it could warrant a Cabinet-level position.
“That sounds like a job I’d like to have,” Jarrett mused during a question-and-answer session after her address to the conference, one of the most significant industry gatherings ever staged in Las Vegas.
Jarrett made a case for the industry’s level of importance in her address.
Referring to tourism as a key U.S. export, she noted that the industry is important to the nation’s economic recovery from the Great Recession and that a healthy tourism industry would create jobs that would help solve the nation’s unemployment problems. She referenced Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s comments earlier today supporting development of “roadways, railways and runways” and how that infrastructure would create jobs and develop travel conduits.
Jarrett also said the Obama administration supports tourism as a means to break down cultural barriers with other countries. Born in Iran, Jarrett said her life was shaped by her frequent travels to Europe, Africa and throughout the Middle East when she was growing up. She added that Obama, who spent some of his youth living in Indonesia, had similar experiences.
As president, Obama sees opportunities to promote the United States and build cultural bridges whenever he travels, she said. He will be in Europe next week.
Jarrett said the administration has heard the industry’s message about the need to fix the visa application process, and she said work has begun to solve problems, starting with the hiring of 100 new consular officers. She said the number of visas issued last year was up 8 percent over the previous year, but she knows there’s still work to be done.
She acknowledged that the administration didn’t get a good start on addressing tourism because “we had a lot to tackle in the early days,” from the economy to the management of two wars.
While in Las Vegas, she said she met with several travel industry CEOs and will relay their ideas to the president. Ideas also will be taken to the president’s Export Council, which includes representatives of the State, Transportation, Commerce and Homeland Security departments.
“We understand each other’s challenges,” she said. “We know what you want to do and you understand the challenges. We have to keep America safe and make sure we have processes in place and we’ll do that, and I have every confidence that we’re going to be able to work that through. This is going to be a work in process. We’re going to be constantly running and refining our procedures and we want to be in consultation with you. We don’t want to go down a path that has unintended consequences that breaks down one barrier and puts up another.”
But is there a separate tourism secretary position in the cards?
“I can’t make you any promises,” Jarrett said, noting that government generally consolidates and streamlines, rather than expands.
She was reminded that several countries have travel and tourism ministries that have financial resources to market those countries.
The United States took a step toward marketing the country as a destination with the formation of the Corporation for Travel Promotion, a public-private partnership funded by a $14 visa application fee fund matched by contributions from the tourism industry.
The corporation, headed by Las Vegas time-share executive Stephen Cloobeck, took a big step Tuesday by announcing the hiring of Jim Evans as its first CEO.
Cloobeck, a panel participant in a session on the new global mind-set toward tourism, gave some updates on the status of the corporation, which is scheduled to meet next week.
While Jarrett dazzled most of nearly 1,000 attendees, she fielded a question from Eric Bello, a member of the Nevada Commission on Tourism and an executive at the Sands Expo Center who said some in the industry are not convinced of the commitment the Obama administration has to the industry, especially after making public statements about travel to Las Vegas.
He said Las Vegas continues to suffer and business travelers are reluctant to stay at five-star properties because of the stigma created by the president’s choice of words.
In 2009, Obama criticized improper spending of Troubled Asset Relief Program money — and used trips to Las Vegas as an example. Jarrett said it’s time to move on.
She said Obama supports business travel and his stops in Las Vegas are a testament to his commitment.
“The president promotes business travel all the time,” she said. “The more you keep saying you’re not certain he’s convinced, you’re kind of creating a self-fulfilling prophesy on it. He’s absolutely committed to business travel.
“The TARP money has been repaid and all of the TARP recipients are free to do whatever they want to do. ... “It’s time to look at the opportunities ahead.”