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The hotel industry has had it, and it’s not going to take it anymore. Tired of being a surrogate whipping post and being portrayed as a symbol of corporate excess, lodging business leaders are fed up. Now they’re striking back and gearing up to battle the political forces unscrupulously representing the meetings business as a frivolous perk enjoyed solely by fat cats with big budget expense accounts.
Truth is, travel is one of the country’s major economic drivers. But from listening to the rhetoric coming from the White House, Congress and in some cases local government, the general public is coming away with a vastly different opinion on what the meetings and incentives businesses are really all about.
Such sharp criticism is mostly unfounded, but the end result is the same: It’s leading to a seemingly wholesale cancellation of meetings across the country, putting millions of jobs at stake and threatening to further sink the economy. According to Roger Dow, President and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, politicians are attempting to turn the travel business “into a political punching bag.”
In his sharpest statements ever – said yesterday during an industry-wide conference call – he exclaimed his frustration of the federal government discouraging companies from utilizing hotels and restaurants and in turn the ancillary businesses that support the lodging industry.
“Recent irresponsible attacks on all meetings and events as excessive, ‘junkets’, ‘boondoggles’ or worse are crushing American workers and local communities. With their political rhetoric and short-sighted legislation, Congress is sending a message to so-called TARP recipients and every other business that they don’t want meetings to take place. The results are predictable, and thousands of companies – most of which have not taken any assistance from the federal government – are cancelling their meetings out of fear,” said Dow, urging an industry-wide effort to combat these statements. “As members of the travel industry, it is our job to eliminate that fear, protect the one million American jobs generated by meetings and events and establish travel as part of the solution.”
Jonathan Tisch, Chairman & CEO of Lowes Hotels, agrees with Dow and says the only way the lodging business is going to get through this crisis is with one industry and one voice. He has been active politically in promoting tourism and hospitality for 15 years through the Travel Business Roundtable, which merged with other organizations late last year to form the U.S. Travel Association.
“We are under siege right now. We will survive by putting aside individual concerns and work for the greater good. This corrosive rhetoric by elected officials that don’t understand what they are talking about is hurtful to our industry. I have heard from many fellow CEOs and we are all concerned for our own companies and the individuals in our companies. However, our industry will come together. We have the power of the people and this is a moment to really understand how to stand together,” said an impassioned Tisch.
Meanwhile, Steve Rudnitsky, president and CEO of Dolce Hotels & Resorts, said it’s time to wake up corporate America to the truth behind Washington rhetoric. “We need to speak out and remind elected officials that meetings, offsite training and fam trips are good for the economy,” said Rudnitsky. “I think we are using [the excess of] AIG as the litmus test for meetings in corporate America. However they are the exception and not the rule. Meetings are critical for strategic planning, corporate development and creating culture, as well as building organizations around key objectives.”
Rudnitsky said he is working to mobilize executives and staff within Dolce to write letters and telephone congressional representatives, as well as state and local officials, to explain how critical travel is to job security, and the way American business operates.
To fight back, the U.S. Travel Association is also launching the "Meetings Mean Business" campaign to combat the unwarranted statements appearing in the media and coming from the mouths of elected officials.
The "Meetings Mean Business" campaign - www.meetingsmeanbusiness.com - is a comprehensive effort, including extensive grassroots mobilization, paid advertising and new media strategies. Campaign components include:
- Development of local coalitions representing workers, small businesses and community leaders, who will speak out on the benefits of meetings and events;
- Groundbreaking research that demonstrates the return on investment of meetings, events and performance incentive travel;
- Economic impact analysis at the state and congressional district level in terms of jobs, economic growth and tax revenue associated with meetings and events;
- Aggressive print and online paid advertising that clearly identifies the value of meetings and events and the unintended victim of its demise; and
- The creation of a rapid-response war-room to counter-act false accusations against legitimate travel activities.
Meetings and events are responsible for nearly 15% of all travel in the United States and create $101 billion in spending, one million jobs and nearly $16 billion in tax revenue at the federal, state and local levels. Without the jobs generated by travel for meetings and events, the unemployment rate in the United States would jump from 7.6% to 8.2%.
U.S. Travel is conducting its campaign in partnership with the American Hotel and Lodging Association, Destination Marketing Association International, International Association of Exhibitions and Events, Meeting Professionals International, National Business Travel Association, Professional Convention and Management Association and SITE (formerly the Society of Incentive Travel Executives).
These associations recently released recommended meetings and events guidelines for companies receiving taxpayer assistance. The groups are strongly encouraging the U.S. Treasury Department to embrace these guidelines and, in so doing, establish transparent standards for those who have accepted federal government support.
Additionally, yesterday the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) sent President Barack Obama a letter expressing the industry’s concerns about recent statements on business meetings and events made by members of his Administration.
The letter, signed by 17,932 members of the association, advises the President that his comments and others expressed recently by Administration officials and members of Congress are having serious repercussions across the lodging and travel industry. Legitimate business meetings and events are being cancelled, causing lodging businesses to cut back on staff and services in response to reduced business, thus resulting in industry job losses.
Guidelines issued by AH&LA and other travel associations in early February are designed to help corporate meeting planners operating under emergency government Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds to plan their meetings and events responsibly. The guidelines are available via this link at www.ahla.com.
The association is asking President Obama “to stand up for the American travel industry,” by supporting legitimate business travel and meetings for all American corporations. The $139 billion U.S. lodging industry has already seen cutbacks in travel-related industry jobs, and is worried that comments by our nation’s leaders are leaving the wrong impression on American business owners.
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Glenn Haussman
Editor in Chief
Hotel Interactive, Inc.
Bio: Glenn Haussman is Hotel Interactive's Editor In Chief, where he manages all editorial content for the hotel industry’s leading online information resource. Here he creates unique and in-depth content that stimulates and educates the publication’s ...
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