OREANDA-NEWS. April 08, 2014. Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) Commissioner Rosemarie S. Andolino has been re-appointed to the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board for a second two-year term by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker.

The Board, established in 2003, serves as the advisory body to the Secretary of Commerce on matters relating to the travel and tourism industry in the United States. Its members represent a broad cross-section of the industry, including transportation services, financial services, and hotels and restaurants, as well as a mix of other small and large firms from across the country.

"The Commerce Department is committed to expanding U.S. exports in the travel and tourism sector, which supports millions of jobs and is a major contributor to our economic recovery," said Secretary Pritzker. "The Travel and Tourism Advisory Board is a critical public-private partnership that helps drive growth in the travel and tourism industry. I look forward to working with the new Board members to continue our efforts of making America a more attractive and accessible destination."

The Board provides advice that helps the government prioritize the travel and tourism policies that will contribute to growth, including enhanced visa issuance and travel facilitation, increased investment in transportation infrastructure, and research for decision-making. The Board also provided input into the National Travel and Tourism Strategy, and its continued efforts will play an important role in reaching the Strategy's goal of attracting 100 million international visitors to the United States by 2021.

"On behalf of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, I want to thank Secretary Pritzker for the honor of continuing to serve on the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board", said Commissioner Andolino. "This is a great opportunity to further the Mayor's goal to host 55 million visitors by 2020 and to increase the visibility of our world class city."

Commissioner Andolino manages O'Hare and Midway International Airports, which together comprise one of the world's busiest airport systems with more than 85 million passengers and one million operations each year, and an annual operating budget of USD1 billion. She is also leading the O'Hare Modernization Program (OMP) - an USD 8 billion mega-project that is reconfiguring O'Hare's airfield into a parallel runway layout system to reduce delays and increase capacity at one of the world's busiest airports.