On March 4 President Obama signed the first-ever Travel Promotion Act into law during a signing ceremony at the White House. The legislation provides resources to promote international travel to the United States.

"This is a significant achievement for the restaurant and hospitality industries," said Scott DeFife, executive vice president for policy and government affairs for the National Restaurant Association (NRA), in a statement. "Restaurateurs depend on travelers, with some segments of the industry attributing as much as 40 percent of annual sales to visitors. The Travel Promotion Act will encourage more international travel and is expected to boost restaurant industry sales, which will spur job growth and help grow the economy."

The Travel Promotion Act creates a public-private partnership campaign to aggressively market the U.S. as a premier travel destination overseas, with the goal of increasing the number of international visitors to the country. For more information, visit www.restaurant.org.