The United States: If we advertise it, they might come

AMERICANS who love to travel spend many hours planning where to go next. Noel Irwin Hentschel turned the idea inside out by recognizing that people from other countries do the same thing and that one of their prime destinations is -- or should be -- the U.S.

With that realization, $5,000 in savings and a British-born partner, Michael Fitzpatrick, Hentschel founded the Los Angeles-based American Tours International in 1977.

Hentschel was in her 20s at the time, a graduate of Notre Dame Academy in West L.A. who had traveled on a shoestring in Europe and lived for two years in Israel. It was there that she decided to go into the travel industry.

ATI was a seat-of-their-pants operation at first. The pair did everything. Hentschel even served as a guide for, among others, 60 Dutch road builders on a bus tour of such American wonders as Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas and New York.

Back in L.A., she got experience in nearly every aspect of the industry, working in air cargo and as the assistant to a tour company chief executive.

Now, in her 50s, she’s at the helm of L.A.’s second-largest business owned by a woman. ATI brings almost a million travelers and $3 billion in foreign revenue to the U.S. annually. As chief travel industry advisor to President Bush, she spearheaded efforts to jump-start U.S. tourism after Sept. 11, 2001, and to rebuild the Gulf Coast as a travel destination after Hurricane Katrina.

Hentschel wants the U.S. government to take the inbound travel industry more seriously, not only because it generates $545 billion and 18 million jobs a year but also because it helps polish the United States’ image abroad.

To see Mt. Rushmore is to love America, she believes. But our government, unlike those of many other countries, doesn’t have a tourism department and does little to promote travel to the U.S. from abroad.

I interviewed her in her West Century Boulevard office, overlooking LAX, earlier this month, right after British police had exposed a massive terrorist threat on flights from England to the U.S., creating havoc at airports and spurring the institution of additional passenger security measures.

How will revelations about this terrorist plot affect travel to the U.S.?

The good news: They were thwarted. I was in Belgium on Sept. 11. I called home, and my son told me to turn on the TV. Together [by phone], we saw the second plane hit the World Trade [Center] towers. I wanted to know how it could happen. I thought we were well prepared, but I guess we weren’t. The thwarting of these recent plots tells us we’re better prepared now.

During the last few years, the travel industry has been plagued by such problems as the outbreak of SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome], the war in Iraq and Sept. 11. Did you ever feel like throwing in the towel?

2002 was a tough year, but I never felt it was all over. People are coping. They are not going to stop traveling. It’s too much of a right.

The British market was the most resilient after Sept. 11, maybe because they’re used to [Irish Republican Army] terrorism. Right after Sept. 11, I met with Colin Marshall [then the head of British Airways]. We came up with a plan to spur travel to the U.S.: the World’s Greatest Offer, a package with air and hotels at prices so attractive people couldn’t afford not to take them. Now offers like that are of part of ATI’s disaster contingency plan.

Besides disasters, have increasingly negative perceptions about America, especially since the beginning of the war in Iraq, had an effect on foreign travel to the U.S.?

Foreign travelers love the American people, even if they don’t agree with our politics. But I was in Germany recently and for the first time saw negative feeling toward America reflected in lowered travel bookings. I told Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez to ask President Bush to reach out to German Chancellor Angela Merkel when he was in Germany [in July].

What should the U.S. government do to help the inbound travel industry?

We need to realize that we’re competing with other countries for tourists. Members of Congress need to go overseas and see that. We’re the only country that doesn’t have a ministry to promote tourism. After the Southeast Asian tsunami, the government of Thailand got really aggressive about getting visitors to come back.

What do foreign travelers do when they come here?

Everybody shops. They love our outlet malls. People who go to New York head across the river to New Jersey to fill their suitcases. It’s not unusual for a couple from South America to spend $10,000 to $15,000 buying apparel in Miami. To them Levi [Strauss] is a designer label.

Beyond that, everyone is different. Germans want to see as much as possible and come for three to four weeks. They love our Western national parks. The Japanese tend to come for just a week, but they spend as much [money] in that time as the Germans do in a month. Italians want to stay in the best hotels and dine in our finest restaurants.

Politics and security concerns have made it hard for Chinese people to tour the U.S. You just got back from travel meetings in China. What did you learn there?

China is the new frontier. America needs to get approved destination status with the Chinese government, but there is concern that people who come [to the U.S.] won’t go back. What I saw was a lot of success in China. People with great lifestyles want to visit the U.S.

U.S. decision makers need to understand that we have to balance security concerns with keeping our borders open to visitors. Think of what increased tourism could mean to the U.S. trade deficit with China.

One of your many charity projects involves taking disadvantaged American children to the great American sites. How do the young people respond?

We started Education Through Travel in the 1990s, when I realized that there are kids in [South Los Angeles] who’ve never even been to the beach. Once a year, we take middle-school students selected by organizations like the Urban League around the country in buses.

Williamsburg [Va.] has a big impact, especially the “slave-for-a-day” program.

The time I spent in Israel launched me on my career. That’s why travel is so critical for young people. Sometimes I even think that getting the Palestinians and Israelis to work together on tourism could be part of the answer to the trouble there.

Susan Spano also writes “Postcards From Paris,” which can be read at latimes.com/susanspano.