President Obama makes a point to see the sights when he travels on official business and prioritizes vacations with his family. In doing so, he not only highlights all the U.S. has to offer, but also sets a great example for our country—and for future occupiers of the Oval Office.
The New York Times political pages last week offered an interesting departure from the usual election scrum: an article exploring President Obama’s role as “the ultimate tourist.” The NYT’s Michael Shear writes that many believe the President’s affinity for sightseeing is good for America—and I’m inclined to agree.
President Obama has seen a lot of the U.S. during his time in office, and has made a point to vacation regularly with his family. First off, he is only the fourth president to visit every state in the union. Obama is also a particular fan of our national parks—he’s visited 30 of them during his presidency, and used his visits to highlight the “Find Your Park” campaign as part of this year’s National Park Service Centennial. In addition, the Obamas’ annual summer vacation to Martha’s Vineyard has been documented each year, along with holiday visits to the president’s home state of Hawaii. While POTUS never officially stops working, he is likely a better leader for prioritizing time away with his family.
The president’s very public travels around the U.S. are also excellent advertisements for our country. Travel is a major economic engine for America, and has been a crucial driver of our nation’s post-recession economic recovery, adding jobs at a faster rate than the rest of the economy since 2010. However, if we are going to continue to move out of recession, so every corner of the U.S. can experience growth and recovery, we need to attract more international visitors. International travelers to the U.S. spent $133 billion here last year, and every $1 million in sales of travel-related goods and services directly generates nine jobs that cannot be outsourced abroad.
President Obama was quick to understand this. The National Travel and Tourism Strategy, established by presidential mandate in 2012, set a goal of welcoming 100 million international visitors to the U.S. by 2021 and the Obama administration worked closely with the travel community to launch and grow Brand USA, our country’s public-private destination marketing organization. In 2014, he spoke about his goals for increasing international visitation to the U.S. during a stop at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Obama has been an incredibly travel-friendly president, and his domestic travels serve to further cement the policy commitments his administration has made.
I would be remiss, too, if I did not mention the value of the president’s international travels as well. Shear’s article notes that the president aims to see as much of a country as possible while on official travel, and that “getting off the beaten path to visit a cultural landmark deepens ties in that country.” My colleagues and I have said many times that travel is our country’s most effective soft diplomacy tool, and it’s hard to overstate the diplomatic value overseas of a visit from the president—and the good impressions these visits leave of the U.S. with international citizens.
The Obama administration understands the value of travel for our nation’s health, wealth, and diplomatic relations. We hope that President Obama’s successor in the Oval Office will follow his lead.