Roundtable's Index Rebounds In January

<B> Roundtable's Index Rebounds In January</B>


The January Travel Business Roundtable Index of Leading Economic Indicators rose 1.2 percent, a relatively strong showing, while the Conference Board's U.S. Index of Leading Economic Indicators also grew 0.5 percent for the month.

"The January increase in the TBR Index is telling us that the travel and tourism industry has considerable resilience to grow beyond the global financial crisis and has now regained momentum," said Jonathan Tisch, president and CEO of Loews Hotels and chairman of the Travel Business Roundtable.

Increases came from four of the nine components that comprise the Travel Business Roundtable Index in January: hotel/motel revenue as reported by Smith Travel Research, personal consumption expenditures for travel and other discretionary products as provided by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the daily rental car price index provided by a top industry provider and the Conference Board's consumer confidence index.

Performance was flat for four other Travel Business Roundtable Index components: Air Transport Association revenue passenger miles, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' level of travel industry employment, total Airlines Reporting Corp. sales, and retail sales at eating and drinking establishments according to the Department of Commerce and Bureau of Census.

Smith Travel Research's hotel/motel occupancy rate showed a slight decline for January.

Dr. James Howell, president of the Howell Group, which pulls together the monthly TBR Index and provides analysis, said, "The strong performance of the TBR Index in January does not come as a surprise. In the fourth quarter of 1998, U.S. growth shook off concerns about the Southeast Asian financial crisis spreading to other countries.