Jonathan Tisch, chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels and chairman emeritus of the U.S. Travel Association, opened the 40th annual NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference with a concise rundown of three key issues facing the industry. The event, held June 3-5 at the New York Marriott Marquis in New York City, brought together leaders in the travel industry for a look at the issues affecting travel and how to navigate the fast-changing market. The three key issues cited by Tisch were:
1. Brand USA is under threat
Tisch first outlined some of the impact of the national marketing initiative founded in 2010: over one million international citizens visited America and contributed $8.5 billion to the economy in 2017. In spite of that, the program took a major hit in the budget deal approved by Congress in February. "Although the fees that fund it were extended, after 2020, those monies will be diverted to the U.S. Treasury instead of Brand USA," Tisch said. "Brand USA is in danger of running out of funding in two years," he warned.
2. President Trump's call for extreme vetting of visitors to the U.S.
Tisch told the audience that the new rules, which would apply to more than 14 million visa applicants -- an increase from about 65,000 people per year under our current system. According to Tisch -- that level of vetting would overload our system and would not make our boarders more secure. He went on to point out that our existing programs, TSA Precheck and the Visa Waiver Program, do a much better job by approaching the problem from the opposite direction: weeding out the travelers who do not pose a threat so maximum resources can be devoted to identifying actual potential threats.
"The Visa Waiver Program is actually the best program we have, with the worst name," Tisch joked. "I would prefer calling it the Secure Travel Partner Program, it would get more participation if the name were more positive. Requiring travelers to use e-passports would also ease our security burden since they are more difficult to forge. Improving and promoting all of these options would have a far greater impact than extreme vetting."
3. Overcrowding at tourism destinations
One of the drawbacks of the boom in tourism in recent years had been the rising tensions between local populations and tourists. Fears of outsiders putting a strain on ecosystems and negatively impacting cultures are on the rise. "We have to lead as an industry to address these perceived threats," said Tisch. "We have a responsibility to help the destinations we do business in to preserve their culture and their ecosystems."