Say goodbye to the US, Say hello to “the United States of Awesome Possibilities” as it looks to visitors from abroad to help lift it out of the economic doldrums.

By soft-pedalling patriotism, the newly-formed US national tourism board tasked with getting more tourists – and their money – onto US soil is reinventing the nation as a hip new land of diversity and possibilities.

“We’re rebranding America for the first time,” said Jim Evans, chief executive officer of the Corporation for Travel Promotion.

“Over the last 10 or 12 years, people have seen America as unwelcoming as we’ve focused on security ... and our competition (from other countries) is more fierce than it’s ever been before.”

The US made $134.4 billion from international tourism in 2010, when a record 60 million tourists came to visit, according to figures from the US Commerce Department.

But the majority of those visitors came over the border from Canada and Mexico, including day trippers. Only six per cent came from Britain, five per cent from Japan, three per cent from Germany and two per cent from France.

The US also trails France as the premier tourist destination – and it’s nowhere near tapping the full potential of the Asian market, after just 1.45 million Chinese and Indians visited last year.

Mindful that tourism already counts for 2.8 per cent of gross domestic product and 7.52 million jobs, Washington sees the industry as a relatively fast and easy way to snap the economy out of its post-recession blues.

“The growing middle class in Asia is driving a lot of this,” said Evans at the Corporation for Travel Promotion’s not-yet-fully-furnished offices in downtown Washington.

One hurdle has little to do with image, and everything to do with bureaucracy – a byzantine US visa application procedure that can take weeks to complete, including fingerprinting and interviews at an embassy or consulate.