Brand USA has seen its federal matching funds slashed from US$100 million to US$20 million — a move its leadership says will require “significant” changes to its operations.
The cut was included in US President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which passed late last week. The sweeping legislation affects multiple sectors, including travel and tourism, with Brand USA’s federal matching funds trimmed by a whopping $80 million.
“While we are disappointed with the reduction,” CEO Fred Dixon said, “Brand USA remains committed to our mission and looks forward to opportunities for funding restoration in the future.”
“The current reduction will require a significant recalibration of our resources and programming that is still to be determined,” Dixon added. “But we remain focused on growing legitimate international inbound travel and the vital boost it provides to the US economy, especially with major global events on the immediate horizon like America250 and the FIFA World Cup.”
“The consideration of defunding Brand USA would have severe and far-reaching ramifications, particularly for travel promotion efforts in key markets like Canada,” a Canadian tourism/travel representative who works with US destinations told Open Jaw prior to the passage of the Trump bill. “Brand USA has been instrumental in leveraging matched funding from numerous US Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs), enabling large-scale, high-impact advertising and marketing campaigns. These initiatives have directly influenced Canadian travellers — one of the largest inbound markets for the US — to choose American destinations for vacations, business trips, and family visits.
“Now is not the time to scale back,” the representative said. “On the contrary, as global travel continues to rebound, the United States must seize the opportunity to reassert itself as a top destination.
“Reducing Brand USA’s budget at this moment is counterintuitive and shortsighted.”
The US Travel Association (USTA) praised parts of the Trump bill, including investments in air traffic control modernization and increased staffing for Customs and Border Protection.
However, USTA president Geoff Freeman warned that the Brand USA cuts, along with new visa fee increases, will deter inbound travel. A $250 Visa Integrity Fee for non-immigrant visas and a near doubling of the ESTA fee from $21 to $40 for Visa Waiver Program travellers is included in the bill.
“The smart investments in the travel process make foolish new fees on foreign visitors and reductions to Brand USA, America’s promotion arm that much harder to swallow,” Freeman said. “Making America the world’s most visited destination — and capitalizing on the upcoming World Cup and Summer Olympics — requires smarter policy and legislative changes that we are already pursuing.”
Raising fees on lawful international visitors “amounts to a self-imposed tariff on one of our nation’s largest exports: international travel spending,” he said. “These fees are not reinvested in improving the travel experience and do nothing but discourage visitation at a time when foreign travelers are already concerned about the welcome experience and high prices.”
