"Current U.S. visa policies impede participation in trade shows, and act as a barrier to foreign trade as U.S. companies fail to meet with current or potential prospects," says Hacker. "We are seeing evidence that buyers from important emerging markets like China, India and Vietnam are the likeliest visitors to be denied entry, and additional export losses are experienced in the form of lost international visitor spending in the hospitality and meetings industries. Unless these policies change, we will be unable to reach that goal, and we will continue to forfeit the chance to compete effectively and we will fail to recapture jobs lost to international competitors."

The unique value of exhibitions and events is the indispensable global platform of connecting buyers and sellers to drive international trade. Annually, there are more than 10,000 business-to-business events and almost one-third of the world's exhibitions occur in the United States, yet many exhibiting companies are stymied from competing effectively due to archaic and ill-advised federal visa issuance policies.

Late last year, the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) commissioned Oxford Economics to conduct The Economic Impact of International Non-Participation in the Exhibition Industry Due to US Visa Issues1. The study measured visitor visa issues that impede participation in trade shows, acting as a barrier to foreign trade as U.S. companies fail to meet with current or potential prospects and secondly, the result of additional export losses experienced in the form of lost international visitor spending in the hospitality and meetings industries. Findings include:

• Visa issues precluded 116,000 international participants from attending U.S. exhibitions. This includes 78,400 international attendees and 37,900 international exhibitors who were hindered from participating.
• Average spending of foreign buyers while in the U.S. exceeds $13,600.
• Without visa barriers in place, the U.S. economy would realize increases in business sales tallying $2.4 billion ($2.6 billion including sales to foreign exhibitors). These gains include $1.5 billion in business-to-business trade, $540 million in registration fees and exhibition space spending, and a $295 million boost to visitor spending.
• The incremental increase in sales to businesses in the U.S. that cater to international visitors would likewise increase $2.4 billion. This increase in sales sustains 17,500 jobs directly; 43,000 jobs overall, and it would generate three-quarters of a billion dollars in state and federal taxes.
• Removing the barriers to international attendance at U.S. trade events would boost foreign trade associated with exhibitions by 14%.

Hacker concluded, "The case for visa reform could not be clearer. Unless and until we adopt measures such as those being proposed today by the U.S. Travel Association we have no reason to expect that U.S. goods and services will be able to meet the challenge of powerful global competition, and we will continue to fall behind. We must reform visa policies if we hope to get back into the game of international trade."