By Andrew Mitchell
With the weeks and months counting down until new security laws
go into effect at American border crossings, tourism organizations on both
sides of the border have ratcheted up their campaigns to educate a public
that’s unaware and in some cases confused by new U.S. passport requirement.
At the same time, state and provincial governments, tourism
associations and other organizations opposed to the passport requirements under
the U.S. Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative are increasing their own lobbying
efforts to have the new rules delayed, lifted, or altered to allow for existing
forms of identification.
The new requirement applies only to people entering the U.S.,
including American tourists who have to pass through borders and customs to
return home. Typically driver’s licences, birth certificates and other forms of
government identification were adequate for people entering, or returning to,
the U.S. from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, Panama, and most Caribbean destinations.
The new passport requirement will be phased in over a year.
Opponents succeeded in pushing back the passport requirement for airports from
Jan. 1 2007 to Jan. 23. People travelling to the U.S. without a passport after
that time may be turned back, or forced to go through a time-consuming
screening process.
For people travelling by car, bus and train, the passport
requirement kicks in at midnight on Dec. 31, 2007.
Frequent travelers who already have Nexus cards will be able
to travel as usual.
Fearing that the passport requirement will present a barrier to
American tourists visiting Canada, tourism organizations have stepped up a
marketing campaign to ensure all potential visitors know of the requirement,
and to make it easier for them to get a passport.
Tourism Whistler currently has a link to a page explaining the
new requirement, and has created a postcard explaining the Western Hemisphere
Travel Initiative. As well, reservation centres like Whistler.com and travel
agents are taking additional steps to inform guests booking their vacations.
Nobody knows how the changes might affect tourism to Canada or
Whistler, although according to a recent article in the New York Times travel
section only 27 per cent of Americans currently have passports. Furthermore,
the cost of acquiring passports might be prohibitive for some families.
A U.S. passport is available for $97 for adults and $82 for
children under 16. One family that booked a cruise saw their bill for a
three-day Mexican cruise increase by over $1,186 U.S. when they factored in the
cost of buying passports for eight adults and five children.
More Americans are expected to get passports as a result of the
changes, and the State Department has hired an additional 250 employees to
handle an increased number of applications. In an average year about 12.3
million Americans apply for passports, a number that is expected to increase to
16 million in 2007.
According to Michele Comeau Thompson, director of
communications for Tourism Whistler, the early indication is that the impact on
the air travel market will not be as bad as for land crossing.
“We’re certainly monitoring any and all information sources we
have and what we’re hearing from the call centres, and what we’ve found is that
from an air travel perspective (the passport requirement) is not nearly as big
an issue,” she said. “For example, we have a huge customer base in California,
but more than likely they would fall into the group of people that already has
passports. We do believe that a lot of our long haul customers already have
passports, so that’s good news.
“That’s not to say there won’t be some impacts, especially with
families that may not have passports for their kids yet, which is why we have
to make sure people have all the latest and greatest information. We have to
stay on top of the issue, and watch what the impacts might be.”
Comeau Thompson is also encouraged by recent lobbying efforts
on both sides of the border that suggest passport requirements for land
crossings might be delayed or even lifted.
“Most of the lobbying efforts are really about land border
crossings, and for air there was no change,” she said. “We did get the air
requirement pushed back a couple of weeks in January, to the new Jan. 23 date,”
she said.
“There is still a good chance that the date of impact for land
could still be much later, at least one year later than the date that’s
currently being proposed and possibly more. That’s still up in the air, but
it’s encouraging.
“From a Whistler perspective I do believe, through research and
some anecdotal information, that most of the impact will be to our land
crossing customers. But if we can’t push the date back, the good news is we
still have a year to make sure those customers are informed and prepared for
the change.”
One proposal floated by Washington Governor Christine Gregoire
two weeks ago suggested that driver’s license scanners could be used as an
alternative to passports. Licenses qualify as photo identification, and most
come with unique barcodes.
As well, most people already have valid licenses, and their use
at borders would prevent the need for people to purchase passports or other
forms of high-tech I.D. cards that have been proposed for American travellers.
Although 40 per cent of Canadians currently carry passports, the U.S. travel industry is particularly worried about the new passport requirement. Canadians rank first in visitors to the U.S. and second to the Japanese in tourism expenditures, with a record of $12.3 billion in tourism expenditures in 2005. Comparatively, Americans spent just $9.1 billion in Canada last year, despite the fact their population is almost 10 times the size of Canada’s.