U.S. Security Causes Organizations to Convene Elsewhere
Posted Mar 05, 2004

The London Times reported in February 2004, that the Anglican Consultative Council will not hold its 2005 conference in the United States as originally scheduled, due to concerns regarding the ability of its members to gain access to the U.S. The conference will now take place in London, rather than in North Carolina. The Church was concerned that its delegates from Africa and the Middle East would not be able to enter the United States under new U.S. immigration rules and regulations. According to the report, more and more planners of international conferences are shying away from the United States as a destination due to the difficulty their members face in obtaining U.S. visas to attend meetings and events.

Many cities across the United States have conference and convention centers. These centers are major sources of state and local tax revenues when delegates stay at hotels, eat in restaurants, and use various tourist-related services. If the international community continues to feel that it cannot consider the United States for global gatherings, many of these conference and convention centers will not be fully utilized. Cities will lose vital tourist dollars that generate many jobs and help to fund many city services. Because conferences are generally planned one to five years in advance, the implications of this mistrust in having international conferences in the U.S. may be felt for years to come.

The United States may need to explore feasible and practical avenues to accommodate these organizations that would otherwise consider the U.S. as a potential conference location. Otherwise, the impact will be felt not merely on U.S. jobs in the tourism and conference industries, but in all sectors of the economy, straining cities and states that are already suffering.