US special visa travel programme under scrutiny after terror attack

Washington

WHEN President Barack Obama on Sunday blamed a special visa travel programme for allowing one of the San Bernardino terrorists into the country, a chill swept through the American travel industry.

The Visa Waiver Program the president referred to eases entry into the US for 20 million visitors from nations that meet certain conditions. The programme is considered crucial to the multi-billion-dollar travel and tourism business from Manhattan to Orlando to Las Vegas to San Francisco. If the programme was somehow connected to the attack in California, anxious lawmakers - racing to respond to rising terrorism fears - would reflexively pare it back significantly or end it altogether, costing the travel industry dearly.