BTA urges border stakeholders to share their experiences throughout the first months of WHTI via Twitter - Yep it’s Called TWHTI!
On June 1st, 2009, the first day of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) full implementation, Border Trade Alliance (BTA), is asking U.S. and Canadian citizens to use Twitter to post their cross-border travel experiences with WHTI to collect feedback on the program at land ports throughout North America.
The project, called TWHTI (pronounced twittee) Twitter the Western Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, will use the free social-media tool, Twitter, to increase public awareness and record real-world experiences during the first months of the implementation of the largest secure traveler program in U.S. history.
TWHTI is an landmark international opportunity to employ social networking to provide other travelers with helpful information, while raising public awareness of WHTI requirements. Utilizing the mobile, real-time and archival aspects of Twitter to automatically compile updates from people on the ground at our border ports of entry will allow the U.S. Federal Government agencies responsible for the intiative - Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Dept. of State (DOS) - to access feedback/data for use in identifying successes and problems.
Anyone can partiipate in TWHTI, all you need is a Twitter account. BTA is looking for people on the ground at our border ports of entry, to post: #WHTI, along with the location and experience. Posts should be constructive, focused on getting documentation, general cross-border experience, wait-times at the port, technology, or economic impacts. To see the archive of TWHTI posts, just search for #WHTI in Twitter’s search to see the experiences and connect with other travelers. Read More →
