Budget Cut Risks, Sluggish Travel: Brand USA CEO on Managing a Critical Moment

Brand USA is once again in the political crosshairs, and proposed cuts come at a time when U.S. travel is already struggling.

Brand USA is facing twin threats: a potential federal funding cut and an already fragile inbound tourism recovery weighed down by global political tensions. In an interview with Skift, CEO Fred Dixon discussed how the organization is preparing for both challenges as it launches a new campaign to re-center attention on U.S. travel.

Brand USA, the destination marketing organization that promotes the U.S. abroad, faces the risk of an 80% cut in federal funding — from $100 million to $20 million — as part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” bill being negotiated in the Senate.

“We would have to scale the organization, right? That's what we would have to do. We'd have to scale to meet our resources,” said Dixon, who was at the IPW conference this week in Chicago. “Hopefully we don't have to