The 44-point "model for growth," which grew out of a White House Conference on Travel and Tourism five months ago, is aimed in particular at attracting more foreign tourists. International tourism is booming worldwide, officials here say, but the United States is not getting its fair share of the market.
In the past three years, the nation's share of worldwide tourism revenues has dropped from 18.7 percent to 15.7 percent, a decline that cost the country billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs.
"A little bit of work and investment will pay off big in terms of jobs and tax revenue for our nation," said Sandra Fulton, chairwoman of the Travel Industry Association of America.
"This market is too important to ignore," she said.
The concept of increasing tourism was too important to ignore for Hawaii, which attracts about one-fifth of all foreign visitors to the United States.
Last year's conference was attended by 22 business and government leaders from Hawaii, who were eager to help efforts to market the United States as a tourist destination.
Honolulu City Councilman Mufi Hannemann, who attended the conference, today called it a first step to recognizing the economic value of tourism.
"Anything they can do to help with the international tourism will help us in Hawaii," he said. "It's good to have everyone together and speaking with one voice."
Hannemann said the council passed a resolution supporting the conference blueprint for helping the tourist industry.
The 44 recommendations that emerged from the travel conference ranged from creating a public-private organization to oversee U.S. tourism efforts to improving safety for foreign visitors.
The list also has recommendations of special interest to Hawaii.
They include making permanent the visa-waiver program, which allows visitors from some foreign countries, including Japan, to visit the United States without obtaining a visa, and making it easier to obtain visas in such nations as Korea.
The number of Korean tourists to Hawaii has soared by 20 percent in the past year, and Hawaii tourism officials say it could climb even faster if visa requirements were relaxed.
"Tourism from Japan really took off when we put in the visa waiver program," said Hannemann. He said the program should be expanded to include nations such as Korea and Taiwan.
Efforts to boost international tourism come at a time when Congress, looking for ways to cut the federal deficit, has shut off funding for the U.S. Travel & Tourism Administration, the federal agency that sells the United States to foreign tourists. The USTTA expects to go out of business next month.
Travel officials say it will be replaced temporarily by a joint public-private agency. They are hoping for congressional approval of a permanent agency - better-funded than the USTTA - but the fate of that proposal remains uncertain.