STATEMENT OF HON. HENRY M. JACKSON, U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF WASHINGTON

Senator JACKSON. Mr. Chairman, I am very happy to present John W. Black to be the Director of the U.S. Travel Service. Mr. Black was born in Spokane, he grew up in Seattle, he graduated, after having served in the Navy during World War II, graduated from the University of Washington in 1947 with a bachelor of arts degree. He then received his master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University in 1949.

He entered into the Foreign Service in 1949 and served in the Department of State here in Washington, D.C. and then, until 1955, he served as a member of the Foreign Service abroad.

Then as the chairman knows, from 1955 until 1961, he was on the staff of this committee. Then, in 1959, he received his juris doctor degree from George Washington University Law School. And he has been the Deputy Director of the Travel Service since its inception in

1961.

I have a sneaking suspicion he had something to do with the drafting of the legislation setting up the Travel Service, which the distinguished chairman authored.

He is exceptionally well-qualified for this position. He is a career Government employee and comes with the finest of credentials. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Senator Jackson.

Any questions of Senator Jackson?

Senator BARTLETT. Do you have any fear he is overeducated?

Senator JACKSON. I am sure that was balanced out during his 6 years of service with this committee.

The CHAIRMAN. All right, John, will you come up here. We will be glad to hear from you.

(Mr. Black's biographical sketch follows:)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF JOHN W. BLACK

John W. Black, 39, an attorney-economist, was born in Spokane, Wash., and received his secondary schooling in Seattle. He has had extensive training and experience in international affairs.

Mr. Black entered Government service in 1949 as a desk officer intern in the Department of State, where his work involved political and economic relations with Great Britain and Ireland.

From 1950 to 1955 he held various posts in the U.S. Foreign Service and was. successively, Kreis Resident Officer for Tauberbischofsheim under the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, Vice Consul at the Munich Consulate General, and Second Secretary and Administrative Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Port-auPrince, Haiti.

Mr. Black is a graduate of the University of Washington, where he received a bachelor of arts degree in 1947. He also attended the University of Colorado and received his master of international affairs degree in 1949 at Columbia University. In 1959 he received his juris doctor degree from the George Washington University Law School.

Mr. Black enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1943 and was commissioned as an ensign in 1945. He was assigned to the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Siboney as combat information center officer and later as division officer in the Southwest Pacific before he was honorably discharged in 1946.

Mr. Black has been closely associated with the travel promotion program from the beginning. As a member of the Senate Commerce Committee staff (1955–61), he worked on aviation, maritime and foreign trade legislation and helped draft the International Travel Act of 1961. The Travel Act, signed by the President on June 29, 1961, established the USTS in the Department of Commerce.

After serving several months as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Commerce, he was named Deputy Director of the Travel Service in November 1961, and Acting Director on May 1, 1964.

Mr. Black is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and of the American Bar Association. He is married to the former Iryne Codon of Los Angeles and resides with his wife and three children at 7025 31st Street NW., Washington, D.C.

STATEMENT OF JOHN W. BLACK, NOMINEE

The CHAIRMAN. The Chair only wants to point out that, other than what my colleague pointed out, Mr. Black has been closely associated with the whole travel promotion program from the beginning, and he was a member of this committee's staff from 1955 to 1961, and he worked particularly on aviation, maritime, and foreign trade legislation, and helped the chairman draft the bill which established the U.S. Travel Service in 1961. So he comes to this position after having served down there as the deputy to Mr. Gilmore with a great deal of legislative and actual experience in this very important field.

Do you have any statement you would like to give the committee, or would you just like to open it up for questions?

Mr. BLACK. No, sir, I would just be prepared for questions. The CHAIRMAN. Well, the chairman and the committee, of course, are deeply interested in this legislation, because we did sponsor it. And for the record, the real reason that the U.S. Travel Service was set up was that this committee, in holding hearings on the balance-ofpayments deficits, found I think somewhat to the amazement of many of us on the committee, way back in 1960, that one of the real problems in the balance-of-payment deficits came from the fact that Americans traveling abroad spent anywhere from $1.2 billion, or $1.5 billion— you will give us the figures for this last year-in traveling abroad, whereas foreign travelers in the United States spent anywhere from $250 million to $300 million maybe, and sometimes less.

So that the balance-of-payment deficits, over a third of it in some cases, in some years, has been the result of the outflow of gold from this particular problem.

So we drew up the legislation in hopes that we could encourage more foreign people to travel in the United States. We knew that it would never-I don't suppose it will quite ever, in the very near future-would ever exceed the amount of money that Americans spend abroad, but it would do something to close the gap.

And it had a lot of other advantages, intangible advantages. Foreigners traveling in the United States get to know us better, have understanding. But our real problem has been over the years to disspel an almost universal conception, throughout the world, that it is too costly to travel in the United States, which is not true.

Then we had some problems with immigration, which were partially solved, simplifying the procedures allowing foreigners to get passports and visas to come to the United States for tourist purposes. Francis Knight was very helpful in that matter. As a result, we have made some progress in this field. And the amount of the appropriation has not been as adequate as the chairman would like, or the committee, I think, would like, over the years. But we hope to remedy that.

We have found, for instance, that many, many States in the Union appropriate more money to encourage travel within their States than

the whole U.S. Government did. We found that all other countries in the world were doing much more, particularly in ratio to their national budgets-way above the percentage that we were using. For instance, Great Britain and France, Italy, Germany, and eastern European countries set aside a certain percentage of their budget and the ratio they set aside is dependent upon the amount of money used in travel in their country for promotional features.

So this is the background of this particular U.S. travel agency, which was set up under the Department of Commerce. So I wanted to just for the record, John, ask these questions:

How much has travel by foreign tourists increased since mid-1961, when the agency got started?

Mr. BLACK. Well, Mr. Chairman, we are talking now about oversea visitors, not counting Canada and Mexico, because you have bordercrosser problems in Canada and Mexico. So, just in terms of visitors from every other country, the increase since 1961 has been 86.3 percent. The CHAIRMAN. Have the other countries experienced similar increases in their tourist travel?

Mr. BLACK. No, sir. This is the thing that encourages us the most, because whereas last year we had a 31 percent increase in these visitors, our competitors, like Canada, Mexico, the British, Australia, and so forth, were showing between 10 and 12 percent increases from the same countries. So we feel our share of the market is expanding. The CHAIRMAN. What role have the foreign tourists played in the overall balance-of-payment situation?

Mr. BLACK. Well, last year I think we can be very happy that the total travel gap went down. It had been $1.6 billion, actually $1,635 million in 1963; last year it was $1,606 million. So this is an interesting development and it encourages us.

A lot of the reason for this is the fact that we did have this tremendous increase in oversea visitors last year.

The CHAIRMAN. How many travel offices do you now have outside the United States?

Mr. BLACK. We have nine-actually seven downstairs public information offices. Then we have two other posts where we have a man in the embassy or consulate, that serves as a trade contact

man.

So we have nine posts altogether.

The CHAIRMAN. Where are the seven?

Mr. BLACK. London, Paris, Frankfurt, Rome, Mexico City, Tokyo and Sydney, Australia.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you have any plans to add to those in the future, immediate future?

Mr. BLACK. Well, this fiscal year, depending upon our Senate appropriations and the final appropriations report, we hope to establish embassy contact people in Stockholm, to cover Scandinavia, and Amsterdam to cover the Benelux countries.

We have been trying to get in there for some years and we hope we can this fiscal year.

The CHAIRMAN. How much did the House put in the bill?

Mr. BLACK. $3 million.

The CHAIRMAN. That was the same as last year?

Mr. BLACK. That is right.

The CHAIRMAN. And the budget amount was

Mr. BLACK. We asked for $3.5 million.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, what services do you provide for the potential tourists to the United States in these offices?

Mr. BLACK. Well, we have a fairly good range of information material that we give to the potential traveler when he comes into our office. We have a range of booklets and brochures that we publish and then we try more and more to get information that the States, cities, convention bureaus and so forth publish into our offices. We hope within another 2 or 3 years most of our material will be things that are published by the cities and States, rather than by the Federal Government.

More and more of these materials are coming in foreign languages. In fact, just 2 days ago I got a sample of brochures from Seattle, the first ones, in three or four foreign languages, which is very encouraging.

Then, once the visitor gets here, we have what we call the visitor service program, which, working with communities and working with private industry, we try to show more hospitality for the foreign visitor here. We have an "Americans at Home" program, for example, where we have worked with 48 different communities to set up a procedure whereby the ordinary traveler can visit in an American home for 2 or 3 hours as a guest in the home. And such things as that.

The CHAIRMAN. What is the situation; has it been working even better in the people making application for tourist visas?

Mr. BLACK. Yes. As you recall, back in 1961 and 1962 the Administration proposed to abolish the visa on a reciprocal basis, and the House didn't want to go that far then. But as a result of the introduction of this legislation, we did come to an agreement whereby a foreigner can get a visa by post. He doesn't have to go into the embassy or consulate now and make a personal appearance.

The CHAIRMAN. And be asked a lot of questions that are irrelevant?

Mr. BLACK. That's right. That situation is much improved. The CHAIRMAN. It used to be almost as hard to get into the United States as it was to break into jail for a while. But that situation has cleared up with safeguards, is that correct?

Mr. BLACK. Yes. It is working fine.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, what cooperation do you have; how do you work with the States? Many States, I think pretty near every State in the Union, has a tourist promotion bureau. How do you

work with them?

Mr. BLACK. Well, back in the beginning we asked the Governor of each State to appoint a liaison officer, an official contact man with USTS, so we have 55, one for each State and one for the District, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Samoa, Guam. And all of the material we get from the States and cities, special promotions we do for the States and so forth, is channeled through this liaison officer.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you have any meetings with these State liaison people? I suppose that there are travel agency conventions. and transportation conventions and all this?

h

Mr. BLACK. Yes, we see them at the travel agents meetings. Bu the principal place for meeting them is the National Association of Travel Organizations Convention. They belong to NATO-the other NATO-and at their annual convention most of our touris promotion people in the States are in attendance at the NATO meetings and we usually have about a day at each of these conventions where we get together with them.

The CHAIRMAN. For the record, what are the transportation people doing about encouraging foreign travel in the way of block fares or round trips, or things of that nature?

Mr. BLACK. Well, this is the brightest part of the whole picture. I think, Mr. Chairman. Beginning back in 1961, when the bus linesGreyhound and Trailways-introduced the 99-day for $99 pass. The CHAIRMAN. The so-called 3-month ticket?

Mr. BLACK. That's right.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, the buslines have done that.
Mr. BLACK. That is right.

The CHAIRMAN. And the local transport airlines have done that. What about the railroads? Are they still lagging behind?

Mr. BLACK. Well, a little bit, I would say. But even they have done something. They have made a 15-percent discount on coach tickets for foreign visitors.

The CHAIRMAN. But they don't have a monthly ticket or anything! Mr. BLACK. No, no flat rate.

The CHAIRMAN. Isn't that customary in Europe, to have a flat rate on railroads?

Mr. BLACK. It is, yes.

The CHAIRMAN. For their tourists?

Mr. BLACK. That is right, for people coming from abroad to Europe, they have the pass which is good for 30 days.

The CHAIRMAN. The buslines have it here, and the local transport airlines have it. Have the trunklines made any effort along this line! Mr. BLACK. Yes, just in the last 6 weeks. We are most encouraged. Beginning with Delta, which has offered now a 30-day flat rate pas for $250, this has just been approved by the Board. Then came along Braniff with another 30-day pass for $150. As far as I know, the Board has not yet approved this fare, but this is quite a breakthrough. Continental has come through in the last 2 or 3 weeks with the same kind of plan as Delta.

I think with those three trunks we will see the other major trunks coming in with a promotional fare for foreigners.

The CHAIRMAN. And the railroads are showing a little sign of life in this?

Mr. BLACK. Well, they have. They could do a little more. I think. We are happy with what they have done, however.

The CHAIRMAN. Whatever they charge per month, it is what they call velvet, because they have a lot of empty seats on those coar trains.

Mr. BLACK. That is right.

The CHAIRMAN. But they have expressed some interest in this?
Mr. BLACK. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. One last question.

What is the size of your staff at the moment?

1