NEW YORK CITY—This nation’s legislative leaders will reportedly once again be afforded an opportunity to take a bold step toward helping to revive the U.S. economy when Senators Harry Reid (D – NV) and Jon Kyl (R – AZ) bring a new travel and tourism stimulus plan before Congress next week, according to BKSH & Associates Managing Director Chuck Merin. Speaking before a joint overflow luncheon meeting of the World Travel & Tourism Council and the Travel Business Roundtable at The Regency Hotel here, Merin— billed as the industry’s leading lobbyist— maintained that travel and tourism can no longer be “the Rodney Dangerfield of U.S. industries.” As such, he pointed out that some of the key points of the limited-duration, bi-partisan initiative to be presented before U.S. legislators include: — An upward revision of the entertainment- and meal-deductibility, hiking it from its current 60% level to 80%. — Establishment of a personal travel tax credit (specifically geared toward leisure travel). — The re-establishment of a spousal travel deduction. — The setting aside of $30 million in federal funding, to be budgeted expressly for marketing this country as a preferred destination for international travelers. Offering up a further political “best guess” from his Washington, D.C. vantage point, Merin offered that it’s looking more likely that President Bush will take a cue from past industry entreaties and approve the establishment of a President’s Advisory Council on Travel and Tourism. As explained, this would be set up as a bi-partisan, non-profit, public/private undertaking. Loews Hotels Chairman/CEO Jonathan Tisch was also on hand to lend credence to the import of those in the executive and legislative corridors of power who maintain travel and tourism should be viewed as a prime driver of the nation’s fiscal well-being. As he observed, the industry employs some 17 million Americans, and contributes roughly $100 billion annually at the federal, state and local levels. Putting it even more succinctly, Tisch said of the industry: “We can create jobs.” Moreover, he suggested that this ability to generate employment is one neither the current Administration nor the present phalanx of lawmakers should disregard. As such, Tisch emphasized that the full efforts and support of the World Travel & Tourism Council and the Travel Business Roundtable— now officially united in a strategic, worldwide alliance— would be behind such public-sector endeavors.
Jonathan Tisch