WTTC Urges Congress to Delay Passport Law

The World Travel & Tourism Council has joined several Caribbean tourism groups in urging the U.S. Congress to delay implementation of new passport requirements included in the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, a law requiring U.S. travelers to have passports in order to re-enter the U.S. from abroad.

In September, Congress approved a Homeland Security bill that would delay implementation until June 1, 2009 the requirement for passports for land crossings at the Canadian and Mexican borders and for cruise passengers returning to the U.S. from Mexico, the Caribbean, Canada or Bermuda. 

However, the bill’s language omitted airline passengers, thus requiring passports for all air travelers in the Western Hemisphere beginning Jan. 8, 2007.

President Bush is expected to sign the bill into law.

The travel industry has generally contended that most airline passengers have passports, compared to cruise passengers and others traveling by land to and from Canada or Mexico.

Nevertheless, there are concerns that Caribbean destinations in particular will be negatively impacted by the new passport requirement. 

Overall, approximately 27% of Americans have valid passports, according to a study conducted by the WTTC and the Caribbean Hotel Association. 

The same study notes that 80% of U.S. visitors to Jamaica, one of the most popular islands in the Caribbean, do not have passports. Similarly, at least 50% of the U.S. visitors to St. Vincent don’t have passports. The same is true for the Bahamas (30%) and Antigua (25%).

Caribbean tourism groups have warned that many islands will be negative impacted by the rule since most travelers heading to the Caribbean to do so by airplane.

According to the joint CHA-WTTC report, the Caribbean region could lose $2.6 billion in visitor exports and more than 188,300 travel and tourism jobs as travelers without passports cancel or postpone trips due to the WHTI passport requirement. 

“These forecasts are extremely alarming and it is discriminative that airlines do not share a similar level of support to that given to cruise and land-based tourism,” said WTTC President Jean-Claude Baumgarten in a statement. “The economic contribution of travel and tourism to Caribbean economies is significant and the airlines are pivotal to this area of the economy.”

The WTTC said it would support Caribbean groups as they continue to lobby lawmakers on Capitol Hill to delay the passport requirement for airline passengers.