Travel Industry Associations Partner To Strengthen Political Voice

The Travel Industry Association of America and the Travel Business Roundtable today announced a partnership, effective immediately, through which the organizations will combine resources and pursue lobbying efforts with "one voice."

TIA, which represents 2,200 members, and TBR, an association of roughly 75 CEO-level travel industry executives, have joined forces in what TIA president and CEO Roger Dow deemed a "strategic partnership." While the groups will continue to remain separate and distinct, two members of each organization, likely including Dow and TBR chairman Jonathan Tisch, will sit on the board of their partner association.

"The way I look at it is, TBR becomes the lobbying effort and TIA brings to the table great depth and research, our communications department and our ability to bring the message out further to the grass roots area. We become the government action group to begin pulling this through from the state and county level right through to the federal level working with TBR," said Dow in a conference call today. "You will not see us lobbying on Capitol Hill under the name of TIA, it will be TBR which will become known as the government affairs face of the travel industry." Chuck Merin, managing director of BKSH & Assoc. and a longtime lobbyist for TBR, will now serve as the principal lobbyist on behalf of both organizations.

Dow also noted that the organizational merger does not represent a consolidation of financial resources and will not affect staffing. "The whole idea of this was not about saving money in any way, it was about how do we take our combined resources, the activities we do, the voice that we have, and meld that into one," Dow said. "What TBR spends and what we spend on our lobbying now, as a single effort, that's twice as big financially and with people. It was not in any way done to consolidate resources."

With combined memberships representing a cross-section of Corporate America and industry leading associations, said TBR chairman Tisch in today's call, the group will be able to present a unified front on pressing issues affecting the industry and the nation at large.

"We are, as two organizations, as one industry, and now as one voice, very concerned about the image of America overseas and very much focused on how we can change that because it affects inbound travel," Tisch said. "We will continue to focus on tax-related issues. We will continue to press for the extension of the work opportunity tax credit, the welfare to work tax credit, the return of a spousal deduction, and an increase in the amount of the business meals deduction."

Tisch pointed to the travel industry's recent victory in obtaining a one-year delay to the biometric passport requirements facing countries participating in the Visa Waiver Program as the kind of initiative the two organizations will pursue together.

"We will continue to really focus our efforts on discussing and pointing out what an economic engine our industry is for this country. We're the third largest retail industry and, unfortunately, a lot of our elected officials don't understand that," said Tisch. "Through this combined ability now to reach out and discuss these issues, we'll be able to really reach out and have an impact and benefit this country and our industry."