WASHINGTON — Travel industry executives want federal help to boost U.S. tourism from abroad but may face a tough sell on Capitol Hill.

The executives told a Senate panel that visa hassles, unfriendly customs officials and weak promotion keep international visitors from the United States despite a booming world travel market.

Representatives of the Discover America Partnership, a coalition of travel and tourism companies, said they need federal help to speed up the visa process, deal with travelers faster at entry points and create a targeted promotion campaign. The goal: to overcome a 17 percent drop in overseas travel to the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The drop has meant a loss of about $93 billion in economic activity and almost 200,000 jobs, according to the group.

"America is experiencing a travel crisis, one that hurts our economy, national security and global standing," Stevan Porter, an executive with the InterContinental Hotels Group, told a Senate panel Wednesday. "We're issuing a strategy that fixes our broken visa and entry systems while strengthening our national security."

Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawai'i, chairman of the Senate commerce committee, agreed with the assessment but cautioned it wasn't going to be easy.

"If the United States is going to make this a much more major industry, we will have to promote it, especially now when many Europeans and Asians look upon America as 'Fortress America,' " he said. "We will have to work overtime to undo that."

Inouye also said he did not believe Congress would now approve the program, partially because lawmakers outside of heavy tourist areas think of tourism as a special interest.

"But I think we can set up a program where we can convince our colleagues," he said. "I think every state has some stake in it."

The travel reduction is spread throughout the country.

Honolulu had 413,000 fewer international visitors in 2005 than it had in 2000, according to the Commerce Department.

Of the nation's top 10 cities for overseas travelers, only New York showed growth during the five years — and that was by only 96,000 travelers to 5.8 million.

Statewide, Hawai'i had almost 2.25 million international visitors in 2005, about 472,000 fewer than in 2000. Guam's nearly 1.23 million overseas visitors in 2005 was about 198,000 less than in 2000.

None of the top 10 states and territories — from California to Texas to New York — reached its 2000 level of overseas visitors by 2005.

The plan also calls for modernizing ports of entry, hiring 250 new customs officers at inbound airports and using technology to move people through the entry process faster.

The coalition plan calls for the State Department to beef up its staffs at consulates and create "rapid response" teams so that visa applications can be processed within 30 days.

Jonathan M. Tisch, chairman of Loews Hotels, said that since the Sept. 11 attacks, people who want a visa to visit the United States have to apply in a face-to-face interview with a consulate official.

That can mean long travel distances in some countries, such as Brazil and India, which have only four consulates each, just to apply for a trip sometime later, said Tisch, a coalition member.

Tisch said that during a six-month period last year, 97 of the 211 visa-issuing posts were reporting wait times in excess of 30 days, and nine had wait times of more than 90 days. In November, the wait times in India were as high as 184 days, he said.

"This is unacceptable, especially when the State Department's own goal is to have wait times of 30 days or less," Tisch said.

Reach Dennis Camire at dcamire@gns.gannett.com.