U.S. Travel Lobby Effort Targets the Hill

February 1, 2012

Tyler Davidson

WASHINGTON, D.C.

The U.S. Travel Association launched a targeted campaign to lobby specific members of Congress about the value that meetings, events, trade shows and incentives bring to their states and districts.

“The campaign that we're undertaking on the Hill is a continuation of our effort since 2009, but the difference with this campaign is we’re going to take a more targeted approach on the Hill, with the 12 states that are the top meetings and events markets in the United States,” said Erik Hansen, director of domestic policy for the U.S. Travel Association. “We’re going to go out to these members and make the case that meetings matter, not only to their districts and to their state, but to the economy as a whole.”

Hansen said the effort will have three key objectives: communicating the number of jobs and amount of economic spending meetings and events produce for a state or district; showing the value of those meetings and events to the broader economy; and connecting Congressional representatives with meetings, conventions and trade shows that are happening in their state or district so they can get a “back-of-the-house” tour to see first-hand the power of the industry and its impact on local communities.

The campaign will target the top 12 states for meetings and events: the Washington, D.C., metro area, New York, Florida, Nevada, Illinois, Louisiana, Arizona, Georgia, Massachusetts, Texas, Hawaii and California. Meetings industry partners that are joining the effort include MPI, PCMA, IMEX, IACC and CIC.

Hansen said the campaign, in conjunction with hospitality industry research firm Smith Travel Research (STR), developed a “dashboard” to illustrate the economic impact of meetings.

“We plan to follow up with each of these members quarterly and provide them with a dashboard of economic indicators so they can tell how the meetings and events industry is doing in their district in the past quarter, compared to the rest of the country and overall on the year,” Hansen said, adding that STR will provide real-time hotel booking information that will be supplemented by economic impact data from the U.S. Travel Association.

About the author

Tyler Davidson is the vice president and chief content director for Meetings Today, which publishes the meetings industry trade magazine Meetings Today as well as MeetingsToday.com, various newsletters, webinars, the in-person Meetings Today LIVE! Hosted-buyer events and other meetings and events industry B2B channels.

Tyler has covered the travel trade for nearly 35 years. In his role with Meetings Today, which recently won the prestigious FOLIO: Eddies Award for best magazine issue, Tyler leads the editorial team on its mission to provide the most in-depth meetings content in the industry. Previously, he worked as the Asia, Canada, Pacific Northwest and Western U.S. editor at Travel Weekly magazine and TravelAge West. Before joining the dual editorial staff producing destination sections for Travel Weekly and TravelAge West, Tyler was the Africa, Israel, Middle East, Switzerland and Pacific Northwest editor at TravelAge West. He also undertook general news and feature assignments while working at the magazines.

Besides reporting on the travel trade, Tyler has covered the real estate industry, held various editorial positions at the San Francisco-based national satire magazine The Nose, wrote freelance technology industry pieces and covered the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders for a bilingual newspaper in San Francisco. He has a B.A. in Journalism from San Francisco State University, where he worked in various editorial capacities on its award-winning student magazine, Prism.

Contact: tyler.davidson@meetingstoday.com