On October 30th 1995, President Bill Clinton gave a speech at the White House that should have been the seminal defining moment for the travel industry in America, cementing the rise of U.S. as the pre-eminent destination, once and for all.

This was the White House Conference on Travel and Tourism, the first ever event in U.S. history that was meant to elevate travel business and the business of promoting America as a destination to the federal level. The White House invited 1,700 leaders of the travel sector in U.S. for this conference, to unveil the new national tourism strategy.

This was supposed to be the start of opening up of America to tourists globally, making it easier for them to come to U.S., and building up a global marketing machine that promoted the country and its various attractions to visitors worldwide. Atlanta’s Olympic Games were scheduled for the following year, and that would have been the perfect platform to promote U.S. tourism on a global scale.

One line from Rep. James Oberstar, introducing President Clinton before his speech, encapsulated the hopes of this day, and the event: “This is the day tourism wins respect as a pillar of our national economy.”

Alas, it wasn’t to be. The recommendations of Clinton’s speech and the strategy developed in the conference that followed got caught up in the partisan bickering, and any plans of creating an apex organization responsible for tourism promotion, part funded by the government and part funded by the industry, never materialized. Mostly, it was the rise of Newt Gingrich and his brand of small-government conservatism that ensured any new federal spending — much less on what was looked upon as a non-serious industry — wouldn’t ever happen. All plans were shelved by the Clinton administration shortly after.

Not only did that kill any hopes for a new national tourism strategy, it also meant that U.S. essentially killed the existing 35-year old tourism department that was part of Department of Commerce. In 1996 the U.S. also withdrew from the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), citing budget pressures.

Sep 11, 2001 and the security frenzy that followed ensured that travel and tourism in the country plummeted to lows unseen in decades, and the industry never fully recovered from the effect of policies that came after.

After 1995, it took another 17 years before another President spoke about the travel and tourism as an industry that deserved a lot more serious attention than had ever been given at federal level, and led to the creation of Brand USA.

By this time, the travel industry became the world’s largest sector and the largest employer, driven by changes in policies globally to spur movement of humans and money that came with them. America lost out on the global travel explosion over the next two decades since that original Clinton speech.

We have reproduced that 1995 speech in entirety below, mainly for the prescient way in which it indicated what travel meant an an industry, the job creation engine it could have been, the promise of that this sector held for the future of America, and what didn’t happen after. C-SPAN even has a video archive of his speech, which we’ve also embedded below.

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I am very proud that this is the first White House Conference on Travel and Tourism. And I know all of you agree that it’s about time.

This industry has been near and dear to my heart since I was a little boy. I grew up in a resort town that also embraced a national park. As an adult I’ve had the good fortune to travel a fair amount, although as President I must say one of the more frustrating aspects of the job is I go to a lot of interesting places and never get to be a tourist.

As Governor, I enthusiastically attended our Governor’s conference on tourism every year. And I want you to know that this is very important to me personally and that this time is a very important time for you to be gathering here.

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