The Biden Administration Anticipates a Mega Decade for Sports Tourism in the United States

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(October 29, 2024) U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo gave an upbeat assessment on the State Department's ongoing efforts to strengthen its ability to issue visas to Americans and foreign visitors, in anticipation of a "mega decade" for sports tourism in the United States.

As a result of these efforts, "more people are traveling to the United States than ever before; more Americans are traveling the world than ever before," Blinken said, stating that in FY24, "we issued 11.5 million visas, and that’s a world record for us, breaking all previous records."  In addition, Blinken said, wait times to get a visa have gone down 60% "since the acute phase of the pandemic...Today, the median wait time is under 60 days for a first-time-visitor visa interview."

These efforts will prepare the United States to accommodate major sporting events in the coming months and years, Blinken said.  "We’ve got the FIFA World Cup coming up. We have the Olympics and Paralympics coming up. We have the rugby world championships. All of this at the start of a mega decade for sports here in the United States.

"We’re doing everything we can to ramp up our capacity to make sure that everyone who’s coming to this country for these incredible events, as well as for so much else, get their visas in a timely way and a smooth way. And all of that I think you’ll see play out over the next couple of years."


Secretary Raimondo concurred that the United States is looking forward to a "blockbuster decade for sports and sporting events. That’s a huge amount of economic activity. Think of all the economic activity around a World Cup or an Olympics, or a Su isper Bowl – we were just talking about. So we want to make it easier for fans to travel here, for sports teams themselves to travel here."

Raimondo stressed that travel and tourism is more than enjoyment and pleasure. "It is real economic activity, sustaining millions of good paying jobs in this country," including nearly 10 million American jobs and $2.3 trillion in economic activity. 

"And so what we are doing today is making it easier to travel to this country, which will be a real shot in the arm for the travel and tourism industry," Raimondo said. 

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