IV

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 110

To express the sense of Congress that the President convene a White House

Conference on Tourism to recognize travel and tourism in America as

a major economic force, providing tax revenue for thousands of cities,

counties, and States, income for hundreds of thousands of business

firms, and contributing to the Nation’s growth and economic stability.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JUNE 10, 1993

Mr. OBERSTAR (for himself, Mr. ROTH, Mr. CLEMENT, Mr. BACCHUS of Florida, Mr. BILBRAY, Mr. BREWSTER, Mr. DE LUGO, Mr. GEKAS, Mr.

KOPETSKI, Mr. RAHALL, Mr. ROMERO-BARCELO ́, Mr. LANCASTER, Mr.

RAVENEL, Mr. ZELIFF, Mr. BEVILL, Mr. ABERCROMBIE, and Mr.

LAROCCO) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred jointly to the Committees on Public Works and Transportation and

Energy and Commerce

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

To express the sense of Congress that the President convene

a White House Conference on Tourism to recognize travel and tourism in America as a major economic force,

providing tax revenue for thousands of cities, counties,

and States, income for hundreds of thousands of business

firms, and contributing to the Nation’s growth and economic stability.

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate

2 concurring),
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1 SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

2 Congress makes the following findings:

3 (1) JOB GENERATION.—(A) Travel industry

4 employment has grown by 43 percent in the last 10

5 years representing twice the growth rate for all

6 United States industries.

7 (B) The travel and tourism industry directly

8 employs 6,000,000 people and indirectly creates em9 ployment for another 3,000,000 Americans or 1 in

10 every 13 workers.

11 (C) Wage and salary income from tourism was

12 4 times that of the Nation’s steel and automobile

13 manufacturing combined in 1991.

14 (2) TRANSPORTATION AND TOURISM

15 INTERDEPENDENCY.—(A) Successful tourism devel16 opment requires the linkage of transportation facili17 ties with recreational lands, small businesses, and

18 businesses supporting the traveling public, such as

19 intercity bus, rail, and air passenger carriers, cruise

20 ships, dining establishments, hotels, motels, camp21 grounds, car rental firms, and other recreation serv22 ice providers.

23 (B) For transportation investment initiatives to

24 contribute toward economic development, such initia25 tives must be responsive to emerging economic cir26 cumstances.
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1 (C) Affordability, flexibility, and convenience

2 make automobile travel the most popular mode of

3 transportation for Americans, accounting for ap4 proximately 80 percent of all travel in the United

5 States.

6 (D) Establishment of appropriate transpor7 tation links from each community to the rest of the

8 Nation is a desirable goal.

9 (E) The recent Federal commitment to scenic

10 byways includes specific enticements to communities

11 which invest in tourism development, successfully

12 linking transportation with historic, scenic, and

13 recreation interests across America.

14 (F) The airline industry has recorded losses for

15 the past 3 years exceeding $10,000,000,000 result16 ing in the lay-offs of over 60,000 employees and

17 causing the loss of thousands of other jobs in indus18 tries dependent on aviation.

19 (G) A White House Conference on Tourism

20 could contribute substantially toward a better under21 standing of the airline industry’s problems and could

22 help airlines resume growth through the expansion

23 of tourism.

24 (3) SCENIC BYWAYS PROGRAM.—(A) The Sce25 nic Byways Program meets many of the needs of
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1 recreational and touring Americans, particularly rec2 reational drivers, bicyclists, and hikers.

3 (B) The Scenic Byways Program protects the

4 scenic, historic, recreational, cultural, natural and

5 archeological integrity of regional communities, fur6 ther enhancing tourism development along these

7 routes.

8 (C) The Scenic Byways Program gives commu9 nities the opportunity to invest in economic develop10 ment initiatives that promote responsible growth and

11 allow tourists to enjoy both the natural beauty and

12 modern conveniences of travel.

13 (4) NEED FOR LEADERSHIP.—(A) Many com14 munities already have the tourism resources with po15 tential to improve local economic conditions, but lack

16 the organizational framework to organize, plan, and

17 implement programs to improve local economies.

18 (B) A White House Conference on Tourism

19 would help develop a better informed and active

20 leadership further ensuring the stable and steady

21 growth of tourism.

22 (5) FEDERAL LAND USE AND ECONOMIC DE23 VELOPMENT.—(A) The National Park Service, Unit24 ed States Forest Service, Bureau of Land Manage25 ment, Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation,
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1 United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau

2 of Indian Affairs maintain more than 626,500,000

3 acres of land, much of which is used for recreational

4 and tourism related activities.

5 (B) 1,259,000,000 visitors spent recreational

6 time on land managed by the Federal Government

7 in 1991.

8 (C) The State park system in the United States

9 recorded 734,000,000 visitors to the more than

10 11,000,000 acres in 4,367 State parks during 1991.

11 (6) SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT.—(A)

12 Small businesses account for over 90 percent of the

13 travel and tourism industry.

14 (B) The Small Business Administration’s 2

15 rural travel and tourism loan programs in 1992 ex16 ceeded $500,000,000 in loans to assist hotels, camp17 grounds, lodging services, amusement services, tour18 ist information bureaus, and transportation services.

19 (C) Tourism represents a unique opportunity

20 for small business development in disadvantaged

21 communities to diversify and improve their economic

22 base.

23 (7) INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND TOURISM.—

24 (A) 42,700,000 foreign visitors spent approximately

25 $48,800,000,000 at United States travel destina-
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1 tions in 1991, making tourism America’s number 1

2 export and creating a net trade surplus of

3 $16,000,000,000.

4 (B) International tourism, the largest American

5 business, accounts for 11 percent of the total United

6 States export of goods and services.

7 (C) The money expended by international visi8 tors in the United States in 1990 directly accounted

9 for 870,000 American jobs.

10 (8) AGRICULTURE AND RURAL ECONOMIC DE11 VELOPMENT.—(A) A task force of Federal agencies

12 is coordinating resources of these agencies to help

13 rural communities expand rural development pro14 grams through enhanced tourism.

15 (B) The food service industry provides employ16 ment for over 9,000,000 people and is a critical link

17 to tourism trade.

18 (C) The American tourist’s spending patterns

19 reveal that dining out accounts for 25 cents of every

traveler’s dollar and nearly 1 20 ⁄2 of all the sales in

21 America’s fine-dining restaurants comes from out-of22 town guests.

23 (9) ECO-TOURISM.—(A) The tourism industry

24 has a fundamental obligation to balance environ25 mental concerns with the use of natural resources to
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1 prevent depletion and degradation of the environ2 ment through proper planning and management

3 processes.

4 (B) The President has recommended the cre5 ation of new partnerships committed to community

6 service programs to stimulate investment in commu7 nities and the rebuilding of our national infrastruc8 ture and natural resources.

9 SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

10 It is the sense of Congress that (1) the President rec11 ognize the influential role rail, bus, air passenger service,

12 highway, and byway investments and other transportation

13 initiatives have in the development of tourism opportuni14 ties in the United States by convening a White House

15 Conference on Tourism to address critical issues which

16 highlight the interdependence of transportation and tour17 ism, and (2) transportation infrastructure and the Scenic

18 Byways Program are key components of economic develop19 ment and should be addressed by the Conference.

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