Travel Promotion Act

June 3, 2009

Hotels Magazine: Lend Your Support Too

Excerpt: “... Congress has introduced the Travel Promotion Act of 2009 to stimulate U.S. economic growth, create thousands of jobs and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax revenue...if leadership had put more effort into promoting tourism over the past eight years, it would have generated an additional 58 million visitors, US$182 billion in new visitor spending and US$27 billion in new tax receipts.

In Mexico, swine flu has cost the country millions of dollars in lost revenue and has forced 22 hotels to temporarily suspend their operations. More than 10,000 servers, cooks, housekeepers and other hotel employees in Cancn have been furloughed from their jobs. In response, the tourism board is planning a US$88 million recovery plan to boost tourism after the swine flu outbreak. It is considering ways to reduce costs for travelers, including a 50% reduction in cruise taxes and efforts to support airlines that continue to operate services to the country.

In Thailand, the government is proactively completing trade missions and roadshows to feeder countries like China and Japan, and recovery is projected to accelerate heading into the third and fourth quarters of 2009...

So if you want to help your business, don't just scour your balance sheet looking to trim costs. Now is the time to be proactive with elected officials, as right now they are listening more closely.”

Jeff Weinstein is Editor in Chief of Hotels magazine.