Opinion | Why Klobuchar’s tourism bill matters for Minnesota’s economy

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America’s travel industry is essential to Minnesota’s economy. In 2024, more than 81.6 million travelers visited Minnesota, supporting more than 182,400 jobs and generating $14.7 billion in visitor spending. These visitors filled our hotels, dined at our restaurants, shopped in our stores and explored destinations across our beautiful state — ultimately enhancing opportunities for tourism and hospitality workers in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Bloomington, and throughout Minnesota.

Many of these visitors are from the surrounding states, but also from Canada, India, the U.K., Ireland, Mexico, Japan, the Nordics and elsewhere around the world. For more than 10 years, Brand USA has been a leading voice promoting our cities, towns and small businesses to international visitors. Their work invites people from around the world to come visit, and that invitation has never been so important.

This year, Canadian visitation to Minneapolis was down 14% as of July and down 18% for all of Minnesota through September. According to Explore Minnesota, Canada is our state’s top international tourism market — accounting for more than 55% of Minnesota’s international visitors last year. For more context, that equates to more than 335,000 travelers and generated approximately $110 million in visitor spending in 2024. Additionally, recent U.S. travel data shows international inbound travel still has not recovered to 2019 levels, with several recent months showing year-over-year declines, which underscores the importance of stable Brand USA funding during this period.

Brand USA operates at no cost to taxpayers; it is funded entirely through fees collected from international visitors and deposited into a Travel Promotion Fund and matching contributions from the travel industry. Despite this, Congress has reduced Brand USA’s federal match dramatically, from up to $100 million annually to just $20 million. This drastic cut, which runs counter to the president’s fiscal year 2026 budget request to fully fund Brand USA, will hurt our economy and affect jobs, businesses and billions in tourism revenue in Minnesota and nationwide.

Fortunately, we have a strong champion in U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who recognizes how essential Brand USA is to bringing visitors and revenue to our metro area and the entire state. We’re grateful to Klobuchar for sponsoring the Vital Investment in Sustaining International Tourism to the USA (VISIT USA) Act, legislation that would help restore much-needed Brand USA funding.

Established by Congress in 2009, Brand USA has generated $75.7 billion in economic activity for the U.S., helping support small businesses, creating jobs and generating tax revenue that funds priorities in Minnesota, from investments in local roads and schools to supporting emergency services. In fiscal 2024 alone, every $1 in Brand USA marketing returned $24.56 of visitor spending, generating $5.9 billion in visitor spending and 1.6 million incremental visits to the United States.

Estimates show that without full funding for Brand USA, the U.S. could lose $7.5 billion in visitor spending by the end of 2028, as well as $2.1 billion in tax revenue and enough spending to support 100,000 American jobs. With events such as the United States’ 250th anniversary, FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympics initially expecting large international attendance throughout the country, taxpayer dollars would need to replace every dollar not spent by visitors to continue funding essential services in our communities.

Congress must act now to protect Brand USA. We applaud Klobuchar for her leadership on this issue and urge all federal representatives here in Minnesota to stand with America’s travel industry, our business community and others who depend on tourism by supporting the VISIT USA Act to fully fund Brand USA.