The Travel Industry Association of America said the new restrictions, put into place as a result of the September 11, 2001 attacks to keep terrorists out of the country, are onerous and have had the effect of discouraging legitimate travelers to the United States.

"The entire travel and tourism industry now faces several new, ill-advised State Department and Homeland Security rules and directives," the group said in a statement announcing the new campaign.

"TIA is launching a coordinated effort to prevent these rules from harming an already fragile international visitor market," it said, calling on its members to protest the regulations in letters to Congress, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and others.

The association, which represents thousands of US travel agents and tourism- and business travel-related concerns, said the new restrictions were cutting into the already soft market, noting a more than 26 per cent drop in inbound travel to the United States between 2000 and 2002.

That drop comes on top of a 37-per cent fall in the US share of worldwide travel since 1992, it said.

Foreign tourists and business travelers resulted in nearly 90 billion dollars in spending in the United States in 2002 and the association said that amount, plus the one million jobs it supported were in jeopardy because of the new rules.

The State Department, which recently adopted a system whereby nearly 90 per cent of all applicants for US visas must go through a personal interview with a diplomat, gave a cool reception to the appeal.