Slow US visa process affects attendance

United States, 22nd December: Delays in obtaining the US visas by nearly 116,000 is poorly affecting the attendance of foreigners in the US exhibitions.

And this is costing around $2.4 billion for the US economy, revealed the findings of a latest study by Oxford Economics for the CEIR (Center for Exhibition Industry Research).           

Those seeking US visas for participating in the exhibitions to be conducted this year in the US are facing lots of problems during prolonged US visa process. And it is resulting in a big loss for the US companies since they are finding it impossible to get connected with their potential clients.

Not only this, the inability of the participants to get US visas in time is also going to spell a big loss for the meeting and the hospitality industries of the US since the foreigner visitors might be unable to come to the US to participate in the US exhibitions this year.

The study findings reveal that the most affected by the delays in the US visa process are the applicants hailing from India, China, Brazil and Russia.

According to Steven Hacker, the chief executive and the president of IAEE(International Association of Exhibitions and Events), no doubt, there is a compelling need for strict screening of foreign visitors to the US, however, that should not, in any way, deter the business of the US economy.

Mr. Hacker warned that the US is going to lose its sales to other nations unless we keep on following the same path.

The officials of the IAEE are going to present the findings of the research before the state agencies, commerce departments and the homeland security agency to help improve the process of obtaining the US visas.

The research involved US exhibition organizers from a total of 47 big events for the current year. It maintained that nearly 2.5 percent of potential foreign attendees as well as exhibitors are unable to participate in such exhibition because of the onerous process of US visa.

It further revealed that around 116,000 potential foreign visitors including 37,900 potential foreign exhibitors and 78,400 potential international attendees were unable to attend US exhibitions due to US visa issues.

And this caused a loss of $2.4 billion in terms of sales including $540 million as registration fees, $1.5 billion in
business-to-business trade and $295 million in foreign visitor spending.