Letter To The Industry: How You Can Stimulate Travel

Kerry Gumas, president & CEO of Questex Media, is urging industry members to write to their legislators to stop anti-travel rhetoric coming from Washington. Here is his open letter to the industry, which includes instructions on how readers of Travel Agent can help to stimulate travel.

kerrygumas

Dear Travel Professional:

As you well know by now, the hospitality and travel industries are taking a huge hit from the lagging economy. But there is also a larger problem, and that is the fact that anti-travel rhetoric by government officials is spurring a tremendous slowdown in legitimate business and meetings travel.

Simply put, American business owners are afraid to be seen spending money on necessary corporate travel because of how it may be perceived in this environment. I’m sure your business is already being impacted by this dismaying trend.

You can help. The U.S. Travel Association (USTA) has made it easy for you to write to your officials, sign a petition, and utilize the resources found on their site to help spread the word about the value of meetings and events to communities around the country.

Simply click here and follow the link for a full tool kit that will make it extremely easy for you to get your message across. Additional information is also available from the American Hotel & Lodging Association which has also been extremely active on this issue. The group’s efforts include sending a letter to President Obama and the House & Senate on behalf of the 17,932 members of the association.

I urge you to forward this e-mail to your colleagues, friends and customers so that we can assist in saving the livelihood of the millions of jobs in all of the communities across America that support the hospitality and travel industry.

Sincerely,
Kerry Gumas