Appearing at Florida's top tourist attraction on Thursday, President Obama ordered more U.S. visas issued more quickly to visitors from Brazil and China.
"We want to tell the world America is open for business," the president said at Disney World. "We want America to be the top tourist destination in the world."
Visa-processing backlogs in Brazil -- which sent the most international tourists to Florida last year -- were cited by the president as a stumbling block.
"We make it too hard for them," Obama said of tourists from Brazil, China and India.
"These are countries with huge populations and an emerging middle class. We want them spending their money here."
Obama said he was directing his administration to accelerate visa approvals for China and Brazil by 40 percent this year.
Showing that it's a small world after all, Florida Gov. Rick Scott previously called for streamlining the visa program.
"The visa issue is very important to Governor Scott. During his visit to Brazil in October, he met with U.S. and Brazilian officials to discuss what it would take to improve the visa program," said Lane Wright, press secretary for the Republican governor.
"Making it easier for Brazilians to get to the United States is expected to dramatically increase tourism to our state and will serve as a job-creating economic boost," Wright said.
At the request of the White House, Chris Thompson, president and CEO of Visit Florida, attended the president's speech. Thompson later met with U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson.
Any efforts toward visa reform that will lessen the inconveniences international travelers experience when visiting the United States would be supported by Floridas tourism industry," Thompson said in a statement.
"Making it easier for travelers from Brazil, China and other countries to visit the Sunshine State equates to increased tourism spending and more jobs for Floridians.
Robert Skrob, executive director of the Florida Association of Destination Marketing Organizations, said changes are badly needed for Brazil, which sends more tourists to the Sunshine State than any other country.
"It takes 69 days to get a [tourist visa] appointment in Sao Paulo. Applicants have to upload photos and complete a lengthy application. You can't bring cell phones to the interview. The bureaucracy is amazing," Skrob said.
Other wait times range from 14 days in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro to 50 days in Recife, according to a U.S. government website.
But, contrary to the president's claims of similar backlogs in China, the federal website showed that visa appointments can be obtained in two days in Beijing.
Brazil is an increasingly big player in the South Florida economy.
Last year, Brazilians overtook Canadians as the foreign group spending the most tourist dollars in Miami, according to the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. Brazilians spent an estimated $1.14 billion in the Miami-Dade area on hotels, restaurants, entertainment and shopping, compared with $840.9 million by Canadians.
That equates to $2,053 per Brazilian visitor, compared with $1,432 per Canadian, the bureau calculated.
From January through September, Visit Florida reported that 1,068,000 Brazilian tourists spent time in Florida -- up 41 percent from the same period in 2010. Tourists from China and Hong Kong totaled just 119,000 during the period, a 38 percent increase.
Folko Weltzien, a South Florida condo expert, said surging real-estate prices in Brazil and the currency's 45 percent gain against the U.S. dollar since 2008 are bringing Brazilians to South Florida in search of bargain vacation homes and property investments.
That's helped bolster Miami's condo market, with total sales increasing 79 percent in the first five months of 2011 from a year earlier, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.
U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, said he was "glad to hear that the president is onboard" with House legislation directing the State Department to streamline its tourist and business traveler visa application system.
Among other things, the Posey-sponsored measure would establish a video-conferencing program to increase consular accessibility and reduce interview wait times.
Every 85 visitors to our state creates a job for a Floridian," Skrob said. "There is nothing that will create a larger influx of visitors to our state than expediting our visa process for our friends in Brazil."
But while calling Obama's announcement "an important step forward to service the customers from Brazil and China who are eager to visit Florida," Skrob said the initiatives should go further.
"A full visa waiver is necessary to create more jobs by eliminating obstacles for our friends from Brazil and China from visiting Florida businesses," Skrob told Sunshine State News.
Obama's political opponents took a jaundiced view of his visit -- which came a day after he rejected the Keystone oil pipeline, blocking the creation of up to 20,000 U.S. jobs.
Pointing out that plans to expedite tourist visas are neither new nor original, skeptics noted that a recent congressional appropriations bill authorized the secretary of state to develop a pilot program to use videoconferencing to conduct remote visa interviews for leisure and business visitors.
"I'm not saying everything here is a bad idea, but he doesn't need to come to Florida to talk about tourism or immigration reform," said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.
"He spends all of his time on the campaign trail in battleground states. Today, it's Florida. Tomorrow it's Virginia. The next day it's Ohio.
"Why isn't he in Mississippi or Texas to talk about tourism? Because they're not battleground states. This is the political reality of what this president is all about," Priebus said.
Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
