U.S. Travel CEOs Huddle with President Trump
The White House’s Roosevelt Room was filled with some of the U.S. travel industry’s most powerful leaders on Tuesday. We’ll be watching to see if that meeting actually produces any powerful results, and whether it helps get President Trump on the travel industry’s side.
President Donald Trump met with 14 travel industry CEOs including U.S. Travel Association’s Roger Dow on Tuesday at the White House to discuss the United States’ lost share in international visitor arrivals, the visa waiver program, Brand USA’s reauthorization, infrastructure improvement, and promoting a welcoming message to international travelers.
The president’s travel ban, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in June, was also broached, said Jonathan Grella, executive vice president of public affairs, who attended the meeting. “We discussed the ban with the president and told him that without security there can be no travel,” he said.
The White House invited the CEOs., including Marriott International CEO Arne Sorenson, Hilton Worldwide CEO Chris Nassetta, and Wyndham Worldwide CEO Geof Ballotti, because they are U.S. Travel’s largest members and $1 billion-plus corporations, said Grella. Tori Barnes, U.S. Travel’s senior vice president for government relations, and Ivanka Trump, President Trump’s daughter and advisor, were the only women in the meeting.
“Our discussion with the president was simple: a strong flow of international business and leisure travelers into the U.S. reduces the trade deficit and creates an outsize number of American jobs,” said Dow in a statement. “There is a global international travel boom, and there is a huge opportunity to greatly expand upon the already strong economy.”
The meeting was the first time the president has met with U.S. Travel, the U.S. travel industry’s D.C.-based lobby organization, since taking office. The meeting comes nearly 20 months into his presidency. The president was in the meeting for the last half hour, and the CEOs met with his staff for 45 minutes prior to that, Grella said.
Besides the president, White House officials attending included Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, and Chris Liddell, deputy chief of staff for policy coordination.
Grella said U.S. Travel is happy with the meeting and the conversation it had with the president and his staff. “The president came in before he even sat down and said, ‘talk to me about international travel,'” he said. “He wasn’t like ‘what do you want?’ That was a good sign that he was prepared for this conversation and it wasn’t necessary to start from the very beginning. He noted his familiarity with our industry through his unique business career.”
Trump asked why the United States’ share of international arrivals have declined in recent years. “He was very inquisitive about that and seemed like he genuinely wanted to understand,” said Grella. “He was interested to get underneath it and solve the puzzle. He did say he wanted to be helpful and supportive.”
U.S. Travel made some recommendations to Trump and his staff, said Grella. “He and his team were asking for what they could do,” he said. “We told them that we need a national strategy to work toward something along the lines of the previous administration’s goal to grow visitor numbers to a certain level by a certain year, but they didn’t commit to anything,” he said.
“We also mentioned the visa waiver program and the (Trump) administration has previously embraced it so we knew going in they would be receptive to our point of view,” said Grella.
The CEOs also underscored the current strength of the U.S. economy and the opportunity to use travel to accelerate growth, said Grella. “Kudlow’s presence in the meeting tells you that the economic conversation was front and center,” he said. “The president is fond of economic milestones. It’s the first meeting and we’re making progress.”
Source: Skift
