{"id":66804,"date":"2024-09-13T10:34:48","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T16:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportstravelmagazine.com\/?p=66804"},"modified":"2024-09-13T10:35:13","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T16:35:13","slug":"geoff-freeman-how-u-s-travel-views-the-sports-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sportstravelmagazine.com\/geoff-freeman-how-u-s-travel-views-the-sports-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Geoff Freeman: How U.S. Travel Views the Sports Market"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Geoff Freeman: How U.S. Travel Views the Sports Market\" src=\"https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/sportstravel-podcast\/geoff-freeman-how-u-s-travel-views-the-sports-mark\/embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>As president and CEO of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ustravel.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.S. Travel Association<\/a>, <strong>Geoff Freeman<\/strong> is the leading advocate for the more than $1 trillion U.S. travel and hospitality industry.\u00a0In this role, he is charged with positioning the industry to seize emerging opportunities and further establishing travel as a vital economic force in the United States. Before taking over at U.S. Travel, Freeman was president and CEO of the Consumer Brands Association, the trade association for America\u2019s $2.1 trillion food, beverage and consumer products industry. And before that, he served five years as president and CEO of the American Gaming Association. So his background in lobbying for interests of various industries is substantial, including, of course, the travel industry. He\u2019s also a father of three who has made the circuit of amateur sports travel, so he knows what he speaks when he discusses the sports-related travel market.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article_sidebar\">\n<p><b>Listen to More<\/b><br \/>\nTo listen to more episodes of the SportsTravel Podcast, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportstravelmagazine.com\/sports-podcast-news-insight-analysis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">click here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Now, with some of the world\u2019s most high-profile events headed to the United States over the next decade, including the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games in Los Angeles, the 2031 Men\u2019s Rugby World Cup, 2033 Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup and 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Utah, the time has arrived where these mega events may lead to policy changes. Chief among those is the issue of visa wait times, which can be hundreds of days for people wanting to enter the United States from certain countries, including several expected to compete less than two years from now in the World Cup. For some of those fans, unless something changes, it may already be too late to get to those matches in 2026. These are important issues, especially for destinations that are investing millions of dollars in hosting matches with the expectation that they will lead to foreign visitation.<\/p>\n<p>These are some of the themes we\u2019ll be discussing with Freeman on stage at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ustravel.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TEAMS Conference and Expo<\/a>, September 23\u00ad\u201326, in Anaheim, California. But in this episode, we introduce the discussion with Freeman and talk about ways destinations of all sizes can better advocate and lobby for the important work they do day in and day out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Among the topics discussed in this episode:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Freeman&#8217;s take on the health of the travel industry (4:08)<\/li>\n<li>Freeman&#8217;s thoughts on sports as a piece of the travel industry (5:32)<\/li>\n<li>What the upcoming mega sports events have the opportunity to provide the industry (7:12)<\/li>\n<li>The issue of visa wait times for international visitation into the United States (9:30)<\/li>\n<li>How some fans may already be too late to apply for visas for the World Cup (11:30)<\/li>\n<li>The importance that World Cup cities are placing on visitation (12:19)<\/li>\n<li>Advice for destinations of all sizes on how best to advocate for the work they do (14:24)<\/li>\n<li>The power that sports have to help destinations advocate for their work (17:20)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">This episode is sponsored by:<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/myrtlebeachsports.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-38280\" src=\"https:\/\/media.sportstravelmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/10031410\/Myrtle-Beach-Sports-1024x382.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"179\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.sportstravelmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/10031410\/Myrtle-Beach-Sports-1024x382.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/media.sportstravelmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/10031410\/Myrtle-Beach-Sports-300x112.jpg 300w, https:\/\/media.sportstravelmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/10031410\/Myrtle-Beach-Sports-768x286.jpg 768w, https:\/\/media.sportstravelmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/10031410\/Myrtle-Beach-Sports-1536x573.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/media.sportstravelmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/10031410\/Myrtle-Beach-Sports-2048x764.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, Geoff Freeman is the leading advocate for the more than $1 trillion U.S. travel and hospitality industry.\u00a0In this role, he is charged with positioning the industry to seize emerging opportunities and further establishing travel as a vital economic force in the United States. Before taking over [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":66806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3032,3033,4337],"tags":[2693,16188,12715,121],"class_list":["post-66804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-olympic-sports","category-paralympic-sports","category-podcasts","tag-2026-fifa-world-cup","tag-geoff-freeman","tag-olympics","tag-paralympics"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/sportstravelmagazine.com\/geoff-freeman-how-u-s-travel-views-the-sports-market\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Geoff 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