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Witness Testimony
Mr. Barry Allred
Travel, Tourism, and Homeland Security: Improving Both without Sacrificing Either. TESTIMONY SUBJECT:Economy/Tourism Status Report Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, my name is Barry
Allred and I am serving this year as the chairman of the Jacksonville Regional
Chamber of Commerce.I am very
pleased to have the opportunity to share our views with you today concerning
where we have been, where we are and where we are going with a particular focus
on the area of Northeast Florida including Jacksonville, and to some degree a
reflection of the state of Florida as a whole and the Nation. The Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce has over 4,000 member companies representing a variety of businesses of which over 90% are small businesses.Our community is not overly tilted toward tourism and because of that, may be a more balanced view of the economy today. Jacksonville is located in Northeast Florida touching the Atlantic Ocean on the East with a downtown area 15 miles inland on the St. Johns River.We are blessed with many natural assets including the intracoastal waterway, beautiful marshlands and large forested areas unlike anything you would expect in Florida.Jacksonville is first and foremost a business city that has been named the "hottest market in the United States for the expansion and location of business" three of the last six years.Our strategic location provides great accessibility for tourist opportunities in the Southeastern United States and at the same time provides an outstanding business location for the development and distribution of products and services. The attacks of 9/11 jolted the Jacksonville area much like every part of the United States.Our companies were looking for answers and trying to decide whether to pull back or accelerate in the aftermath of this terrible event.Tourism was, in fact, the first and most severe industry impacted as people were traumatized by the events and uncertain about flying or travel after the attacks. Our Chamber held a series of meetings to discuss the
issues of operating a company in an uncertain environment and managing risk
while moving forward with your business.The
response was strong and very positive and our small businesses, on the whole,
chose to take a more aggressive position rather than re-trench in the face of
great uncertainty, if not danger. On the Tourism side, the most immediate impact was the
reduction of air travel to various destinations.Our approach through our Convention and Visitor's Bureau
was to analyze our market opportunities and begin to encourage a larger "drive
market" for people in the Southeastern United States to vacation closer to
home and without air travel.Following
a very difficult 4th quarter in 2001, the new strategy began to work
and business has been rebounding for the past 2 years.Although we are not yet ahead of the previous levels from the
year 2000, we expect to be at or above those levels by the last quarter of this
year. Air service and corresponding tourism travel also have
returned to near normal levels of activity.We do believe people still have concerns about flying; however, most of
those concerns have been overridden.We
believe that Jacksonville is fairly representative of those markets that were
able to utilize a driving market to recover more quickly, but it seems most
locations in Florida as a whole and the United States have had a relatively
strong rebound and are nearing more normal levels on the tourism front. A week ago I completed a business development mission to four European countries and met with about 25 companies.The only negative issue encountered concerning the United States was the great difficulty with passport and visa issuance under the new system.We were told it was discouraging both business and pleasure visits to the United States.I am no expert on the process but I hope security needs of the United States and the need to expedite the processing can be addressed, which will make our friends more comfortable and interested in travel to the Untied States.I also believe that Congress should consider providing financial support to marketing efforts especially in Europe, which encourages U.S. travel along with developing a smooth processing approach and an explanation of that process.This could greatly increase the flow of money into the Untied States and help our economy.I realize this is a delicate balance but a very important one. Another piece of evidence is Jacksonville's new cruise
ship business.Prior to 9/11 no
cruise ships served north of Cape Canaveral in Florida.After 9/11, Jacksonville became an attractive market and now is served by
2 cruise ship lines because more people want to drive to a cruise than fly.Our new cruise service has been very successful. For Jacksonville and any location hosting major events,
what has changed is the substantially increased cost of dealing with security.Next February, Jacksonville will be the host of the Super Bowl and in
doing so will bring over 100,000 people to our city during the week of the game.The process of hosting large numbers of people now has a very large price
tag associated with it-one that goes beyond the scope of a community or even a
state to be able to handle.The
reasons for these concerns are not related to any community or to any state but
instead to the national issues associated with our democracy and our
international relations.That being
said, another issue I would like you to consider is greater support at the
Federal level when dealing with security for major national events. A strategic issue that you as a Congress must wrestle with
is the balance between security and reasonable comfort for travelers.As a nation, we have agreed that we will not allow terrorism to disrupt
our lives and will move forward in spite of efforts to keep us from doing so.This means that we must be ever mindful of security requirements to make
air and other forms of travel as safe as is reasonable. At the same time, we have to balance those needs for
security with a level of reason that encourages people to be willing to utilize
efficient forms of mass transportation.Striking
that balance between reasonable and effective security, and effective and
efficient operations is an important and difficult responsibility as you
establish regulations through the governmental process.We urge you to listen to experts on both sides of the fence-those
providing the best and most efficient security and those representing the travel
and tourism industry making the clearest judgment on the tolerance levels of our
traveling public. In the broader economy of Jacksonville and Florida, we have
had significant success in our overall growth and development.Florida has managed to add jobs every month since 9/11 in spite of
concerns for the economy and international terrorism.Our companies recognize that the market for their products and services
are worldwide not just in Florida or the Southeast or the U.S. as a whole.We develop our strategies on taxation, business environment and economic
development with a broad view of the need for our companies to compete on a
global scale.The results of single
events and even the national economy should not be the determining factor of
success and opportunities for growth. The result is that on a national, state and local level, we
must be diligent to fairly tax our producers of products and services to allow
them to be competitive at each level and most importantly at the international
level where we compete with the world. Companies in this country need a
competitive environment beginning with balanced taxation and regulations that
allow for the greatest efficiencies.We
believe we are doing that in Jacksonville and in the state of Florida and urge
Congress to evaluate and enact legislation and taxation that understands the
product competitiveness requirement that makes our nation's companies strong. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. |
