PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Melissa Gong (TBR)
202.408.2137
mgong@tia.org
Cathy Keefe (TIA)
202.408.2183
ckeefe@tia.org
Angelo I. Amador (Chamber)
202.463.5422
aamador@uschamber.com

February 14, 2007

BUSINESS AND TRAVEL COMMUNITIES APPLAUD BIPARTISAN LEGISLATION TO IMPROVE WESTERN HEMISPHERE TRAVEL INITIATIVE

Washington, D.C. — The Travel Business Roundtable (TBR), the Travel Industry Association (TIA), and the US Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) commend Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) for introducing comprehensive legislation that will improve final implementation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) land and sea border crossing requirements. Co-sponsors of this bipartisan legislation include Congressman John McHugh (R-NY), Congressman Collin Peterson (D-MN) and Congressman Don Manzullo (R-IL).

“We are thankful to these members for recognizing the importance of this issue for travel and tourism and for once again demonstrating real leadership,” said Jonathan M. Tisch, Chairman of the Travel Business Roundtable and Chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels. “The Protecting American Commerce and Travel Act of 2007 ensures that passport cards for land and sea travelers are not prohibitively expensive and requires the federal government to work with the travel industry to educate the traveling public of any new border crossing requirements. We applaud these efforts to continue facilitating cross- border travel,” he added.

“This bipartisan legislation calls for direct cooperation between our government and those of our neighbors to make sure we improve cross-border travel and trade while strengthening security,” said Roger Dow, President and CEO of the Travel Industry Association. “This legislation employs common-sense strategies for facilitating the entry of millions of legitimate international visitors,” he added.

“We are encouraged that the federal government will now have to work with at least one state in a pilot project to enhance driver licenses to meet the requirements of WHTI,” said Randel Johnson, Vice President of the US Chamber of Commerce. “Since only 27 percent of US citizens hold a passport, a document that is close to being non- discretionary should work as an alternative,” he added. “Finally, excluding children from the passport requirement will continue to encourage families to travel across our borders and bring more sense into our security policy,” he concluded.

# # #

TBR, a strategic partner to the Travel Industry Association, is a CEO-based organization
whose mission is to educate elected officials about the important economic and social
contributions of the travel and tourism industry, which provides 7.5 million U.S. jobs,
$105 billion in tax revenue and an $8 billion balance of trade surplus. For more
information, visit www.tbr.org.

TIA is the national, non-profit organization representing all sectors of the $703 billion
U.S. travel industry. TIA's mission is to promote and facilitate increased travel to and
within the United States. For more information, visit www.tia.org.

The United States Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation,
representing 3,000,000 businesses, 2,800 state and local chambers of commerce, 830
business associations, and 102 American Chambers of Commerce in 87 countries. For
more information, visit www.uschamber.com.

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