"Employment in the travel industry edged down 3,000 in May 2011, the first monthly decline in six months. Still, over the past year, travel jobs increased by 107,200, which accounted for 12.3 percent of the 870,000 U.S. jobs added overall during this period.

"With the domestic economy appearing to decelerate in the second quarter, reliance on exports will play an even more critical role in keeping the recovery ongoing and create job opportunities for Americans. Last year, foreign travel in the U.S. supported 931,000 jobs directly in the U.S. travel industry and another 856,000 jobs in other industries. And through the first quarter of this year, travel exports were up 8.7 percent from 2010, a good sign that this key job creator is continuing to grow.

"Attracting more foreign visitors to the United States will play an important role in creating job opportunities for U.S. workers across America. However, the U.S. is in strong competition with other global markets, which is why the U.S. Travel Association recently put forth a plan to create 1.3 million domestic jobs by making the U.S. a more-competitive export market in global travel."