• by Aaron Baar , November 7, 2011

New York City. The Golden Gate Bridge. The Grand Canyon. The United States of America is not lacking for tourist attractions, even for those who come from outside its borders. For the first time ever, the country is launching a marketing effort to raise its profile among international travelers.

Get ready for “Brand USA,” an advertising and marketing effort set to launch in the spring of 2012 with the sole purpose of inviting world guests to visit America for leisure, business and scholarly pursuits. The program is intended to help address declining travel market share for the U.S. over the past decade. According to Brand USA, Inc., the organization behind the effort, the global share of international arrivals to the U.S. has declined from 17% in 2000 to 12.4% in 2010, even as the overall international travel market grew by more than 60 million travelers annually.

“In decades past, America was able to rely on reputation and word-of-mouth to attract international travelers,” Chris Perkins, chief marketing officer, of Brand USA Inc., tells Marketing Daily. “In this new, flat world, just as we compete globally to produce manufacturing or technology exports, we must also compete to attract world travelers and the spending they bring.”

Perkins notes that the U.S. lags many other industrialized countries in luring international travelers. “Other countries including France, the United Kingdom and Australia have promoted themselves successfully for years, and they have reaped the benefits,” he says. “Boosting international travel is one of the best levers we have to create new, outsource-proof U.S. jobs and spur economic activity, and inviting people to experience our country firsthand is also the best way to directly affect global perception of the USA.”

The centerpiece of the Brand USA campaign is a logo that features a collection of dots joining together to compose the letters USA. The dots will be used to showcase the diversity of people and destinations across the country. The group has also created a Web site, www.discoveramerica.com, to serve as an outlet for travelers seeking more information. A global advertising campaign, as well as public relations, social media outreach, promotional, incentive and educational efforts on the country’s entry policies, will follow in the spring.

“We have not yet announced our target markets, but they will be determined through a thorough analysis of existing market research and original studies as necessary,” Perkins says. “You can be sure that we will have a presence in the traditional markets from which we have always received strong visitation such as Western Europe, Canada, Mexico and Japan, as well as emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil, where global travel is currently exploding.”

Brand USA Inc. (formerly the Corporation for Travel Promotion), is a public-private partnership between the travel industry and the U.S. government. The partnership, which is led by private industry with oversight from the Department of Commerce and the U.S. Commerce, was made possible through the Travel Promotion Act, which was passed in March 2010.