The events of Sept. 11, 2001 are on the minds of every American this month. Those heinous attacks on the U.S. and the psyche of all its citizens changed everything about us and continue to reverberate 10 years later. The hospitality industry wasn’t spared from the damage, even though our pain pales in comparison to those who perished in the terrorist attacks and the families and friends who grieve them.

As we all remember, travel ground to a halt in the days and weeks following the tragedy, but miraculously rebounded quickly. Within a few months of Sept. 11, business travel was beginning to pick up and leisure travel barely missed a beat. The hotel business had a strong run until the financial crisis put another sudden brake on travel, a downturn from which the industry has not yet fully recovered three years later.

Sept. 11 left another legacy that hurt the U.S. tourism business in very distinct ways. In the post 9/11 era, a wave of paranoia regarding national security overtook the country and colored our perspective on how we welcome visitors into the country and facilitate travel within the U.S. Unfortunately, the pendulum swung too far toward caution, and it’s cost the domestic tourism business billions of dollars in the past decade and perhaps permanently marred out country’s reputation for openness and hospitality.

A recent study from the U.S. Travel Association shows how far we’ve slipped as a destination of choice for world travelers. It’s hard to evaluate all the causes for the precipitous decline, but we can’t ignore the numbers:

• USTA says since 9/11 worldwide travel grew by 40%, yet overseas travel to the U.S. rose just 2% during the same timeframe.

• Had the U.S. kept pace with the rest of the world, 78 million more visitors would have come here in the past 10 years, adding $606 billion to the national economy and supporting more than 450,000 jobs.

In releasing this data, the USTA made another pitch for the importance of reforming the antiquated and isolationist U.S. visa system. It’s a clear-cut case of overkill. Just as TSA agents pat-down little old ladies in the name of national security, so does the visa system make it extremely difficult for people from many countries to visit the U.S. (and spend money here) for legitimate reasons. Our policy toward China is an example often cited by U.S. tourism executives as an example of our shortsightedness. The U.S. government requires Chinese citizens applying for a visa to visit America to undergo a one-on-one interview at a U.S. consulate. Problem is there are only five in all of China, leading to months-long waits for many would-be visitors.

Aside from some lip service to the problem by the Obama administration and Congress, there seems to be no movement to correct this situation. In the meantime, the U.S. loses millions of dollars a day in potential travel spending by foreign visitors. It’s time we as an industry get off our butts and make something happen to change this untenable predicament.