Editorial: Travel Gets Respect
<B> Editorial: Travel Gets Respect</B>
By Jonathan M. Tisch
<i>Jonathan M. Tisch is president and chief executive officer of Loews Hotels and chairman of the Travel Business Roundtable. </i>
During a recent meeting of the Travel Business Roundtable, the Chief Domestic Policy Advisor to Vice President Gore, David Beier, made one of the most significant
announcements the travel and tourism industry has ever experienced: the appointment of a senior Administration official to oversee and support the industry's activities. Gene Sperling, special assistant to the President, and director of the National Economic Council, will assume this new area of responsibility. This unprecedented appointment is the result of negotiations that began on April 30, when Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) organized a day-long series of meetings for TBR leaders with key, high-ranking White House and Treasury Department officials, as well as members of Congress.
The decision to appoint a top economic policy advisor to focus on our issues is a validation of everything that the TBR has tried to accomplish since our inception three years ago: to alter the prevailing perception of our industry as the Rodney Dangerfield creators of McJobs. It also underscores the value of the commitment we must all undertake to elevate our presence in Washington, and with elected officials in all levels of government.
Through the TBR's Capitol Hill Day program, we have made a concerted effort to meet regularly with members of Congress, as well as key Administration officials, to underscore the important contributions travel and tourism makes to the economy. The latest figures make our case even stronger: $64 billion in tax-generated revenues nationwide; a $26 billion trade surplus; as well as our ability to create jobs, help transition former welfare recipients into the workforce, and serve as a catalyst for economic revitalization.
Industry CEOs and senior executives can and should make a difference. But, that can only happen when each and every one of us participates actively in the process. That attitude is what will ultimately lead to overcoming our industry's longstanding reputation as legislative roadkill, and what will determine our ability to leverage our collective strength well into the new millennium.
Earlier this year, the TBR scored another coup when Reps. Mark Foley (R-FL) and Sam Farr (D-CA) announced the reconstitution of the Congressional Travel and Tourism Caucus. As an important step in establishing an agenda for the future, members of the TBR also participated in a press conference with the Caucus earlier this year to unveil business meal deductibility relief legislation. Industry leaders developed a coherent and politically viable set of messages, and then went off to make their case with policymakers. In football terms, it's called blocking and tackling.
The bottom line is that if we don't view ourselves as a united industry and a growing economic force, then why should they?
I am urging each and every one of you to continue the successful momentum that has begun. When you are in Washington, make it a point to schedule an appointment with your local representatives. Communicate the facts about our industry, and, specifically, what it means to their constituents.
In a letter that I sent to White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles following the Travel Business Roundtable's meeting with him on April 30, I wrote:
"Travel and tourism is an American industry for the 21st century. We create career job opportunities, solidify the economic base of urban and rural centers all across the nation, and palpably reflect the transformation of our society from an industrial to a services sector economy.