The U.S. Travel Association, along with a coalition of hotel associations and companies, requested $250 billion from the Trump administration during a Tuesday meeting at the White House, $100 billion more than had been originally reported, according to updated information from USTA. The group asked the government to establish a $250 billion "travel workforce stabilization fund" at the Treasury Department to keep industry workers in their jobs and to provide compensation for economic losses incurred in the interest of public health, according to USTA.
The fund would be composed of two programs: $150 billion for grants to travel-dependent businesses to maintain employment at pre-coronavirus levels and to meet obligations like rent, utilities and debt; and $100 billion for travel business stabilization. In the second program, the Treasury Department would "provide unsecured loans, loan guarantees, and lines of credit to businesses and organizations suffering severe financial distress as a result of Covid-19, and to enter into contracts with businesses for bulk purchases of lodging, airfare, event and meeting space, and travel-related services over the next 10 years."
The association also projected that Covid-19 would cost the U.S. travel sector 4.6 million jobs by the end of April, not the end of the year, according to an updated analysis conducted by Oxford Economics, with the loss of $202 billion in direct travel spending by that time as well.
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