Brand USA’s Board of Directors Taps New Members

Brand USA, the destination-marketing organization for the United States, has announced the appointment of two new board members and the reappointment of two existing members.

The new board appointees join a group of tourism industry leaders each with designated expertise in specific sectors of the travel industry including: hotel accommodations; restaurants; small business or retail or in associations representing that sector; travel distribution; attractions or recreations; state-level tourism office; city-level convention and visitors bureau; passenger air; land or sea transportation; and immigration law and policy. The newly appointed and reappointed members include:

- Alice Norsworthy, chief marketing officer, Universal Orlando Resort and executive vice president, international brand management, Universal Parks & Resorts (new appointment, representing the attractions or recreations sector).

- Thomas O'Toole, senior fellow and clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management of Northwestern University (new appointment, representing the passenger air sector).

- Andrew Greenfield, partner, Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen and Loewy, LLP (re-appointment, representing the immigration law and policy sector).

- Barbara Richardson, chief of external relations, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (re-appointment, representing the land or sea transportation sector).

The appointments were made by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security as provided for in the Travel Promotion, Enhancement, and Modernization Act of 2014. Each appointment became effective Dec. 1, 2016, for a term of three years.

The newly appointed and re-appointed board members will join the current board members at the next board of directors meeting on Dec. 9, 2016, from 11:00 AM EST to 12:15 PM EST.

Each year, Brand USA deploys a number of marketing platforms and programs to increase in-bound visitor travel to the United States and drive tourism dollars to communities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the five territories, as well as to promote tourism to, through, and beyond the gateways.

To accomplish this, Brand USA utilizes a combination of brand marketing, public relations, travel trade outreach, and cooperative marketing programs that provide opportunities for partners of all types and sizes to participate.

According to a study released by Oxford Economics, over the past three years, Brand USA's marketing efforts have generated more than 3 million incremental international visitors to the United States, benefiting the U.S. economy with nearly $21 billion in total economic impact, which has supported, on average, 50,000 incremental jobs a year.

As the number one services export for the United States, tourism to the United States currently supports 1.8 million American jobs (directly and indirectly) and benefits virtually every sector of the U.S. economy.