Moving abroad U.S. borders to ten different countries for visitors and citizens

The Travel Community is excited about this move. Travel Industry players from around the U.S. including airlines and local tourism boards are coming forward with statements to hail this move by U.S.Homeland Security.

Visitors, tourists, business travelers and Americans returning home will be able to clear U.S. borders already before even arriving on U.S. soil. Forget however duty free sales on airplanes, but this is a smaller price to pay for a lot of convenient.

Airlines are getting more selling points. For example Turkish Airlines with its massive expansion may be the overall winner to be able to compete with Etihad in Abu Dhabi now.

The U.S. Travel Association issued this statement today.

Succesful for years from Canada and Irealand, succesful with the help of the UAE Government and Etihad Airways from Abu Dhabi, and now expanded to ten more foreign airports soon, the U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow issued the following statement on this announcement by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Customs and Border Protection Deputy Commissioner Kevin McAleenan.

This announcement was about the U.S. will enter negotiations to expand the U.S. customs preclearance program to nine additional countries (Belgium, Dominican Republic, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and United Kingdom) :

“When the experience for the international traveler improves, the U.S. economy improves, and again this administration deserves praise for pressing ahead with innovative policies that simultaneously bolster national security and streamline the customs entry process.

“Customs preclearance is a program that has proven itself effective, and extending it to these key travel markets will undoubtedly boost visitation. As a bonus, adding preclearance facilities will further relieve pressure on the customs entry process here on our shores, improving the system generally.

“Evolving policies such as these are a big reason why we surpassed a record 74 million international visitors to the U.S. last year, and are well on pace to reach 100 million visitors annually by 2021. With overseas visitors spending an average of $4,300 per person, per trip, that’s just good economic sense.”