The U.S. Travel Association has unveiled the Sustainable Travel Coalition, a group of representatives of nearly 60 initial member organizations that will serve as an advisory board to the association, U.S. Travel announced Tuesday.
The coalition includes representatives from hotel companies, airlines and airports, convention and visitors bureaus, and other travel organizations.
In one of its first initiatives, coalition members along with several non-member organizations sent a July 25 letter to U.S. Congress members requesting sustainability-related measures on the federal level. Those measures include a tax credit for the production and use of sustainable aviation fuel, an enhanced tax credit to increase the availability of electric vehicle charging stations and other incentives related to efficiency upgrades for commercial buildings, protection of natural resources and clean-energy technology innovations.
“This is clearly an issue that spans well beyond the travel industry itself to practically all other sectors of the U.S. economy,” U.S. Travel EVP of public affairs and policy Tori Emerson Barnes said in a statement. “By bringing together stakeholders across related industries, we are aligning leaders in travel, transportation and technology on the critical issues that will affect their businesses for decades to come.”