Marriott CEO Calls on U.S. to End the Visa Delays Damaging Tourism

The top boss of Marriott International used an on-stage interview on Thursday as a platform to call on the U.S. federal government to do more to cut the wait times for interviews for first-time visitor visa applicants, which he said was leading to lost revenue because of reduced U.S. inbound tourism.

CEO Anthony Capuano, who leads the world's largest hospitality company, was interviewed at an annual meeting run by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a business advocacy group. Capuano was asked which policies his team would press President Biden's Administration on for industry benefit.

"Certainly reducing visa wait times, particularly for those countries that have the potential, would be the most impactful, in terms of sheer volume of visitors," Capuano said. "I had a chance to talk with the Commerce Secretary [Gina Raimondo], and we talked about the fact that in some countries the average wait times right now exceed 400 days. So we are losing out on billions an