Despite intense lobbying efforts by airlines, cruise operators and destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean (CB Aug. 25), the U.S. departments of Homeland Security and State announced jointly that all U.S. citizens returning to the U.S. from abroad will be required to be in possession of a valid passport after all.

While acknowledging the complaints against the stricter new requirement from the travel industry and the traveling public, the U.S. government agencies indicated the effective date is being pushed back by a year.

The U.S. government also announced that the two departments “will keep working to come up with a cheaper, more widely used alternative document to allow U.S. citizens and other travelers to enter U.S. citizens and other travelers to cross into the U.S. over land borders.”

The new stricter requirement is included in the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative sent to the U.S. Congress Sept. 1 stipulates a timetable for implementation. Effective Dec. 31, 2006 all air and seas travelers entering the U.S. from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Bermuda will be required to have a passport. Then effective Dec. 31, 2007 the requirement is extended to all land border crossings as well as air and sea travel.

Travel industry sources indicate the tightened new requirements represent a victory of hardliners advocating tougher rules for homeland security. But they are concerned about their impact on travel to the Caribbean as well as on the thousands of U.S. citizens accustomed to traveling in the region simply with a birth certificate or a driver’s license.

In the Dominican Republic (D.R.), which has become a magnet for travelers from abroad, last year it welcomed more than three million visitors who spent more than $3 billion. Last year for the first time more than half of the visitors were from the U.S. as well as Puerto Rico. D.R. minister of tourism Felix Jimenez is concerned over the stricter passport rule could cost his country’s tourism industry close to $500 million a year.

Some travel agents warn that initially Caribbean destinations and the cruise lines will feel the brunt of the new rule as vacationers opt for vacations in the U.S. But officials in both Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are monitoring the legislation closely because, while it does not effect travel between the U.S. territories and the U.S. mainland by their U.S. citizen residents, U.S. citizens traveling on cruises out of San Juan would be required to have passports when the rules take effect.

The World Travel & Tourism Council indicates that only 23% of U.S. citizens have a passport. Given the popularity of travel to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and elsewhere in the hemisphere, applications for passports are expected to surge as citizens comply.

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