Brand USA used the opening day of U.S. Travel Association’s IPW in Greater Fort Lauderdale to expand its America the Beautiful platform with two new initiatives aimed squarely at instilling confidence among international traveler audiences.

President and CEO Fred Dixon introduced “Get Facts. Get Going,” an always-on resource that pulls together real-time information on visa policies, entry requirements, and fees in one place. The pitch is straightforward: international travelers planning a U.S. trip in 2026 are running into more misinformation than usual, and Brand USA wants a single source of truth for partners and prospects. The second initiative, “American Originals,” is a content and storytelling series that leans into the trends — set-jetting, culinary travel, live entertainment — with the first installments spotlighting Monument Valley, Memphis, Texas, and New York City.

The announcements landed at IPW in Fort Lauderdale and simultaneously at IMEX Frankfurt, splitting the message across leisure and business events audiences in the same news cycle. Brand USA’s official release ties both initiatives to the America the Beautiful campaign, which has been the organization’s primary international play since its global rollout earlier this year across nine priority markets.

Why the Confidence Angle?

Brand USA’s own research, cited in the release, found that 72 percent of international audiences responded positively to America the Beautiful messaging and 67 percent reported an increased desire to visit. But conversion from interest to booking has been a separate question, and visa wait times, entry fee changes, and shifting policy headlines have made the planning step harder for inbound travelers than the inspiration step. Get Facts. Get Going. is effectively a friction-reduction tool — the kind of thing destination partners can link to from their own international landing pages without having to keep their content current themselves.

American Originals, by contrast, is a soft-power play. The series leans on people-first storytelling rather than landmark imagery, a deliberate choice that mirrors what a number of state and city DMOs have been testing in their own campaigns over the past year. The Monument Valley, Memphis, Texas, and NYC kickoff destinations span geography and visitor profile in a way that hints at how the series may rotate.

How the Industry Can Use This

For destination partners, the practical question is distribution and reuse rights — whether American Originals content will be available for DMOs to embed or co-promote on their own channels, and how the Get Facts hub will integrate with state-level visitor information. Brand USA hasn’t yet published distribution specifics, but the platform’s recent partnerships with Mindtrip on AmericaTheBeautiful.com and the broader push around connected TV and streaming suggests partner integration may be part of the roadmap.