With international inbound travel down in all major overseas markets, recent remarks by a top official in the U.S. Department of Commerce encouraged travel industry executives. Assistant Secretary of Commerce Linda Conlin announced that the department should begin accepting applications the week of April 14th for appointments to serve on a private-sector board that will advise the department on ways to use the $50 million appropriated by Congress for a marketing campaign to promote travel to the U.S. Conlin also said the department hopes to start using the funds as early as this fall. Conlin spoke at a Washington, D.C. travel summit co-sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a number of travel industry organizations including TIA. - April 10, 2003

Americans Stay In U.S.; Overseas Travel Plummets

TIA's new War Impact Survey shows that Americans won't be traveling much overseas this spring and summer and that business and air travel continue to suffer considerably. Urban areas will be hit doubly hard due to the downturn in business travel and international inbound visitation. To a lesser extent, these urban areas will also be affected by lower interest in leisure travel visitation from Americans. The good news is that 81% of Americans still plan on traveling for leisure this spring and summer and bargains will abound. The survey confirms recent leisure travel trends with travelers saying they are more interested in travel by auto, RV or motorcoach, staying within the U.S. and visiting small towns and rural areas. The first wave of this four-wave survey was conducted March 20 -25 using web-based surveys among 1,200 online Americans. - April 9, 2003

Destination Reports 

Hawaii - Hawaii tourism officials are reporting a 33 percent decline in business since the start of the Iraq War. Japanese visitor business dropped by 30 - 40 percent and tour groups are down by as much as 30 percent. To counter this, the Hawaii Tourism Authority is redirecting $1.7 million into attracting frequent flyers and mainland visitors. - April 9, 2003

Florida - Visit Florida have reported that South Florida's hotel and convention businesses have shown a certain resilience to the affects of the Iraq War when compared to other parts of the state. Close to half (46.6%) of businesses in the tri-county area have been affected to some degree by the war, but future bookings are down only 22.5 percent in this area. This compares favorably to the 32.8 percent decline in future bookings for Central Florida, 34.6 percent drop in north Florida and 32.6 percent statewide. - April 9, 2003

Washington, DC - Hotel occupancy rates for the Nation's Capital stormed ahead of the national average for the week ending March 29, 2003. Smith Travel Research report occupancy in Washington DC hotels to have been 79 percent, compared to the U.S. national average of 60 percent. For the entire month of March, DC's occupancy rates stood at 77 percent. - April 9, 2003

SARS Update

For world airlines, current bookings to areas such as Hong Kong, are down 30% to 40%, says Giovanni Bisignani, CEO of the International Air Transport Association. U.S. airlines' traffic on trans-Pacific routes fell more than 23% last week compared with a year ago, says the Air Transport Association. Continental Airlines on Monday said that it will suspend non-stop Newark, NY - Hong Kong flights until June 2. The past six weeks of worsening results coincided with the increasing publicity and health warnings about travel to Asia, where most cases of SARS have been found. "The airlines will lose in the long term," according to Forrester Research analyst Henry Harteveldt, who estimates that airlines could lose 5% to 10% of their business travelers in the Asia market to video conferencing within 18 months. - April 9, 2003 

Gas Prices Move Lower

Gasoline prices will move slightly lower this summer, to an average of $1.56 a gallon nationwide, but only if foreign oil production remains at current high levels, the Energy Department's Information Administration predicted (April 8). The additional foreign oil is needed to rebuild the nation's depleted gasoline and crude oil inventories to more normal levels, said EIA Administrator Guy Caruso. Motorists are more vulnerable to sudden gasoline price increases if inventories remain low. Caruso cited the progress in the military campaign in Iraq as helping to bring crude oil and gasoline prices down from pre-war peaks. Gasoline reached $1.73 a gallon, a record for this time of year, just before the start of the war, and now stands at $1.63 according to EIA's national survey. The $1.56 a gallon forecast for this summer would be roughly the same as in the 2000 and 2001 summer seasons, but about 17 cents more than last year's average price, he said. - April 9, 2003 

Air Traffic Update

U.S. airline traffic deteriorated last week from already depressed levels since the onset of fighting in Iraq and the outbreak of SARS, according to the Air Transportation Association.  Based on six days of traffic data through Saturday, April 6, U.S. airline traffic fell 17.4% compared to the equivalent year-ago period, widened from an 11.5% year-to-year decline for the preceding week. Probably reflecting the impact of SARS and strongly worded travel warnings from the World Health Organization, the biggest drop last week was registered on the Pacific with traffic down 25.8%, followed by transatlantic, off 25.2%. Domestic traffic decreased 14.7% and Latin America traffic was down 17.8% compared to 2002. - April 9, 2003

A Slow Recovery 

The U.S. airline industry slump will probably linger until at least 2005, said a majority of executives attending the annual New York Airfinance Journal conference, with more than 80 percent predicting another major airline bankruptcy in 2003. American, Monday, announced it will fly about 2 percent fewer domestic flights than planned in May. International flying will be about 13 percent lower. United pared its schedule by 8 percent. US Airways nipped 4 percent of its flying. Continental announced temporary reductions last month on overseas routes because of the war, then followed up with a 2 percent cut in summer capacity as well. Moody�s analysts say they see no recovery until several factors are mitigated - the fear of flying during wartime; the slow economy; and the dramatic cutback in airline capacity. They predict airlines' liquidity will recover in the 2004 to 2005 time frame, earnings and cash flow in 2005 and the capital structures will return to health in 2008 to 2010.- April 8, 2003

Impact of War on Lodging Industry

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) estimates that declines in both leisure and business travel during the Iraq War will cause RevPAR to decline by 3.1 percent in the second quarter of 2003 after a flat first quarter, compared to 2002 levels. RevPAR is expected to increase by only 0.5 percent for full year 2003. The company also predicts that both RevPAR and lodging demand will increase by 3.0 percent from the previous year in the second half of 2003, this is on condition that the U.S. suffers no major or specific terrorist threats or attacks. Lodging demand is forecast to decline by 1.8 percent in the second quarter of 2003, compared to second quarter 2002. ADR is expected to improve by 0.4 percent in the first half and by 0.8 percent in the second half of 2003, leading to an overall increase of 0.6 percent in 2003 over 2002. This does not, however, compensate for the 1.0-percent decline in 2001 and the 1.6-percent decline in 2002. PwC have revised downward their initial forecast of $16.1 billion in profits for the lodging industry, to $15 billion in 2003, due to the impact of the Iraq War.  - April 7, 2003

Jobless Claims Increasingly High

The Labor Department has reported that new claims for unemployment shot up by 38,000 to 445,000 for the week ending March 29, 2003. This is the highest level of new claims since the week ending April 13, 2002. Economists say that claims above 400,000 typically reflect an extremely weak job market. New Claims have been above 400,000 seven weeks in a row now. - April 4, 2003

Hotel Performance - Up or Down?

The second week of the Iraq War, ending March 29, has brought some surprisingly optimistic results for the hotel industry. Smith Travel Research reports that on a national level, occupancy rates increased by 1.2 percent over the same period last year. Average daily room rates (ADR) increased by 2.1 percent and revenue per available room (RevPAR) grew 3.2 percent from last year. Occupancy rates at upper upscale and upper class hotels surged ahead of last year by 8.9 percent and 8.1 percent respectively, and these two sectors had the best performance in terms of RevPAR also. However, upon closer scrutiny, these results are not as surprising as first thought. The equivalent week for 2002 was Easter week, a time when, traditionally, people stay at home with their families and so hotel occupancy rates, along with other measures, would have been typically lower. Therefore, a comparison to the week ending March 31, 2001 will give a better gauge of the current situation. Compared to 2001, occupancy rates fell 9.4 percent while average daily room rates dropped by 4.0 percent. RevPAR plummeted 13.0 percent in comparison to 2001 numbers.  - April 4, 2003

SARS Outbreak

The UN health agency, the World Health Organization (WHO), has taken the rare step of advising against travel to Hong Kong and the Chinese province of Guangdong, because of the SARS outbreak. SARS is now believed to have killed 75 people and infected more than 1,700, mainly in China and Hong Kong. Meanwhile, the Business Travel Coalition conducted a survey about SARS on April 1 and found that 27 percent of the 180 corporations and organizations that responded - all said to be large buyers of commercial air - banned travel to Asia. In other findings, 24 percent took no action on SARS; 8 percent were mulling a ban; and 41 percent merely provided guidance and advisories to employees. The survey participants each average 31 roundtrips to Asian countries per month, which translates into 66,960 roundtrips annually at a price tag of some $268 million per year, BTC figured   - April 3, 2003

Air Capacity - Las Vegas

Loss of air capacity is putting occupancy rates at Las Vegas' gaming industry hotels in a "danger zone," a new Deutsche Bank report said. Las Vegas air service is now adequate only for maintaining reduced occupancy rates at around 80 percent. That compares with the local industry's normal occupancy level of 90 percent or more. Barely half the seats lost by the November shutdown of National Airlines - 9 percent of total seats to Las Vegas, or about 6,000 seats a day - have returned to the market, the study estimated. If there are further cutbacks, they will substantially increase the risk for gaming operators. - April 3, 2003

Airline Advertising

Airlines are slowly beginning to step up advertising despite the war. The additional ads in the last few days, from online sellers of airline tickets as well as the carriers themselves, reflect the industry's difficult situation. At Orbitz, the online ticket broker owned by a consortium of major carriers, "We started to see a definite decline in demand, especially in international travel, a couple of days before the war started, so we decided to pull back some marketing support," said Michael Sands, the chief marketing officer, in Chicago. Those cutbacks included newspaper ads and so-called pop-under ads on Web sites," he said. "But now we see demand as coming back, so we're going to be aggressive in advertising," Sands said. 

"It's hard to countervail the American' people's desire to travel, and people want to book their summer travel plans, particularly for early summer. We may be taking a much closer look at consumer perceptions, hour by hour, so to speak, instead of day by day," said Eric Webber, a vice president at GSD&M in Austin, Texas, the Omnicom Group agency that has long created campaigns for Southwest Airlines. 
 - April 3, 2003

Airlines: Good News on the Horizon?

While many war-related cutbacks in international and domestic flights went into effect on Tuesday, April 1, there were some signs that the industry may have finally bottomed out. US Airways emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 1st as promised with costs nearly 19 percent lower than before filing. United Airlines' pilots agreed late last week to savings of $1.1 billion annually and negotiations with other unions for cuts were progressing. AMR, American Airlines' parent reached preliminary agreements with negotiators for its three unions on contracts with cost savings of $1.6 billion a year. And House and Senate Appropriations committees have approved more than $3 billion in aid for the airline industry. These funds will be included in an emergency war-spending bill. The package includes an extra 26 weeks of extended unemployment benefits for jobless aviation workers. The $3.2 billion House plan and the $3.5 billion Senate package both involve waiving security fees owed to the Government for the latter half of the fiscal year, ending September 30th, with the House bill also including reimbursement to carriers for what they have paid since February last year. However, in order to qualify for assistance, airline executives must freeze their salaries. - April 2, 2003

War Impact on Leisure Travel

Just seven percent of leisure travelers in the U.S. have cancelled a trip because of the war, according to a survey conducted by Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell. As expected, the majority (58 percent) of cancellations were for trips by air. Less than one out of every four cancellations were for trips by car and almost half (46 percent) of reported cancellations were for an international trip. Fully 75 percent of leisure travelers said the war will not influence their future leisure travel plans. Among those who indicated their plans would change (25 percent), 72 percent said they would take fewer international trips and 65 percent said they would drive rather than fly. . The survey was conducted March 24 - 26. - April 2, 2003

Hotel Revenues Slide

U.S. hotel room rates and occupancy both declined sharply in the first week of the war, according to a survey conducted by Smith Travel Research. Revenue per available room, which reflects prices paid for occupied rooms, fell 8.4 percent compared to a year ago to $51.76 in the week ending March 22. The high-end properties in the biggest cities, which are also the biggest money-makers, did even worse. Room revenues at luxury hotels were down 10.3 percent. Urban hotels overall saw a decline of 11.8 percent and revenues in the bellwether market of New York tumbled 12.4 percent. In the week ending March 22, overall hotel occupancy dropped 4.8 percent and the average daily room rate fell 3.8 percent. The industry has been weak for more than a year, but recently occupancies had been stronger prior to the start of the war.- March 31, 2003

State Roundup

New York: During the first week of the war, ticket sales on Broadway shot up 3.25 percent, equating to an increase of $12.9 million from the previous week. This compares very favorably to the 20 percent dive they took during the onset of the last Gulf War.

Hawaii: Hawaii will spend an additional $8 million to help the tourism industry recover from the war if a bill approved by the state House Committee on Finance becomes law. The additional spending, recommended by the House Select Committee on War Preparedness, would be added to the Hawaii Tourism Authority's budget for the next fiscal year starting July first.

California: Tourism leaders at the annual California Conference on Tourism launched a campaign to halt proposed budget cuts that would eliminate the state's Division of Tourism.  Tourism officials signed petitions, conceived strategies and made plans to lobby state legislators that tourism deserves $7 million in funding because it generates significant jobs and tax revenues.

Louisiana: Phillip Jones, secretary of the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, estimated Louisiana could see a 10 percent decline in tourists and lose up to $800 million in tourism revenue during the next budget year, because of the war, based on trends seen during the last Gulf War.

Montana: Bookings for guided fishing trips this season are "up considerably over any time in the past," said a Missoula fly-fishing outfitter. "Clients who normally go to Chile, Argentina or Alaska are coming here instead," he said. State tourism officials say the war could be a boon to the Montana tourist industry.

Florida: Visit Florida, the state's official tourism marketing corporation, has an extensive research effort underway to determine how the war is affecting the state's huge tourism industry. The two -pronged program includes an ongoing gauge of how the various sectors of the state industry are doing in different parts of the state. A second component is tracking nationwide consumer attitudes toward travel to determine future vacation intentions as well as to learn what factors might motivate reluctant travelers. In addition to its own research efforts, Visit Florida is partnering with the Florida Hotels & Motel Association, Florida Attractions Association, Florida Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds, University of Miami, Orlando-based Yesawich Pepperdine Brown & Russell and the Travel Industry Association of America - March 31, 2003

Student-Youth Travel

Almost ninety-seven percent of all student and youth group trips planned for calendar year 2003 are taking place on the date scheduled according to a recent survey conducted the Student and Youth Travel Association of North America (SYTA) one week after the war with Iraq began. The survey did show a jump in cancellations in March over February, which it attributed to the start of the war. - March 31, 2003

Leisure Travel Plans on Hold

A survey of 13 AAA national travel clubs indicates that more Americans are postponing their travel plans following the start of the war. According to the survey conducted the week of March 17, travel bookings were approximately 76 percent of what they were a year earlier and 87 percent of the week of March 10, just prior to hostilities. By segment for the week of March 17 over year-earlier results, cruise bookings reached 72 percent, tour packages were 76 percent, car rentals totaled 73 percent and hotel reservations were 78 percent. Total visits to AAA offices nationwide were 79 percent of the previous year.- March 31, 2003

Air Bookings Down

Advance bookings by U.S. airlines for the next 60 to 90 days suggest no immediate relief is in sight. Domestic bookings are down more than 20 percent. Atlantic bookings are down more than 40 percent. Latin America bookings are off more than 15 percent and Pacific bookings are down more than 30 percent. The results were reported by the Air Transport Association. It was reported that airlines, on some days, had cancellations exceed bookings.  - March 28, 2003

Airline Impact

Passenger traffic on U.S. airlines since the war with Iraq began is down more than 10 percent from the year-earlier period, according to internal industry numbers reported by Dow Jones Business news. The system-wide traffic figures, the first snapshot of the impact of war at the nation's airports, are in line with the capacity cuts announced by airlines, which have varied from about 6 percent to 14 percent, depending on the carrier. Any drop from last year's very weak traffic represents more pain for a devastated industry. "Economic analysts indicate that recovery is unlikely before 2004, if then; competition in the air-travel marketplace continues to escalate, revenue remains depressed, and geopolitical concerns are increasingly complex," Delta Chief Executive Leo F. Mullin wrote.  - March 28, 2003 

After airline statistics were released, the car rental industry expressed concern about its business, which relies on airport reservations for roughly 60 percent of its sales, according to Neil Abrams, president of Abrams Consulting Group in Purchase, N.Y. Car rental outlets outside of airports could pick up some incremental business, though, if Americans decide to travel closer to home, as they did last summer. Rental car companies might also pick up some corporate clients traveling shorter distances - say Los Angeles to San Francisco or New York to Boston - who prefer a drive to a flight in these uncertain times, Abrams was quoted in USA TODAY. "It's really a very unpredictable situation right now." - March 28, 2003 

Hotel Impact 

According to Smith Travel Research, during the first week of the war (March 16 - 22), occupancies in U.S. hotels were down an average 4.8 percent, average daily room rates, ADR, fell 3.8 percent, and revenue per available room, RevPAR, was down a very significant 8.4 percent over the same week of 2002. Preliminary March month-to-date performance through March 22 shows occupancies down 3.6 percent, ADR down 1.9 percent and RevPar down 5.4 percent.  - March 28, 2003

WTO Forecast 

Using the aftereffects of the 1991 Gulf War as an example, WTO secretary-general Francesco Frangialli says that the tourism industry should remain hopeful as "tourism has always bounced back and has always done so quickly". In 1991, following the war, the industry still achieved a 1.2 percent growth which was, in turn, succeeded by a dramatic 8.3 percent jump in 1992. WTO is confident that the need to travel, whether for business or leisure, is too deeply ingrained in society to be easily erased and therefore predicts that while there may need to be some restructuring within the industry, it will rebound, perhaps even stronger than before. - March 27, 2003

Advertising Activity 

As the war unfolded, organizations took different approaches to advertising.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said it plans to begin airing national television ads again this week, following a one-week hiatus.  Tourism leaders in Florida are ready to crank up ad campaigns aimed at the drive market in Florida and adjacent states.

In Connecticut, happy-go-lucky advertisements of the state's two casinos were pulled from the television airwaves because of the war. Officials at Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun Casino said it is too early to gauge how the war will affect casino business.

Starwood is postponing an ad campaign for its Sheraton brand that was schedule to kick off on April 1, citing the war with Iraq. - March 27, 2003

Japanese Outbound Travel 

According to travel companies in Japan, many customers who had planned family trips to foreign countries during the spring recess and the Golden Week holidays in May have cancelled their plans. Nippon Travel Agency Company's overseas travel bookings for April are down 8 percent, while May reservations have dropped 25 percent on a year-on-year basis.  Domestic travel bookings in Japan, however, remain firm. JTB enjoyed a 9 percent rise in the sale of domestic package tours in March. - March 26, 2003

Corporate Travel Survey

Business travel demand, already significantly depressed by 9/11 and a weak economy, is likely to decline further in the months ahead. According to a Business Travel Coalition survey of 123 large buyers of U.S. commercial air transportation services conducted on March 19 (the day the war began):

• 21 percent of corporations have banned international travel for some period of time, or until further notice.
• 33 percent of corporations would consider banning international travel under worsening circumstances.
• 54 percent of corporations have tightened pre-approval processes for international travel.
• 48 percent of corporations have adjusted domestic U.S. travel policy in anticipation of war with Iraq.

65 percent of companies have indicated that they have communicated to employees that there is no pressure from management to travel during this time of hostilities.  - March 26, 2003

Several key destinations are reporting early troubles due to the war.

International travel counts in Hawaii through Monday, March 24 were down more than 30 percent vs. a year ago. Decline shave been greatest among older Japanese visitors (the silver market) and corporate and school groups, whose sponsors are concerned about their safety. Travel from the U.s. Mainland to Hawaii is also reported to be down.

The drop in demand for travel to Las Vegas is putting pressure on hotel rates. The average weekend room rate for the week of April 14 fell 44 percent, a record so far this year, to $158, according to data compiled by an independent Wall Street investment research firm. The average midweek rate fell to $103, down 15 percent from the year before.

In New York City, the average hotel room rate has fallen to $178 per night, down 6 percent from last year and down 36 percent from its 2000 peak. Today' s occupancy rate of 69 percent is well below the 83 percent rate in 2000, according to PKF Consulting. Nevertheless, New York City hotels reported few cancellations last week. - March 26, 2003

Rental Car Policies

Five major rental-car companies, including Cendant's Avis and Budget rent A Car, Enterprise Rent-A-car, Dollar Rent A Car and Hertz have announced that they will waive fees on one-way rentals if the U.S. government should suspend air travel.  - March 26, 2003

Homeland Security Alerts 

The last time the country was at orange alert status, the Air Transport Association reports that international advance air bookings dropped more than 20 percent. The Department of Homeland Security upped the terror threat on March 17 from yellow (significant but nonspecific threat) where it had been since February 27, to orange (a high risk of terrorist attack). - March 26, 2003

Business Travel Intentions

A recently published poll showed that 57 percent of domestic business travelers expect to travel about the same amount in the next three months as they did in the previous three months. Twenty-six percent expect to travel slightly or a lot less. Among those who said they would travel less, 29 percent cited lower demand for business travel and 25 percent cited concerns about the war in Iraq or terrorism. The online survey of 2,146 U.S. adults, including 1,141 business travelers, was conducted last Tuesday through Friday for USA TODAY,  - March 25, 2003

Travel by Rail

Amtrak ridership remains fairly strong in the face of a number of factors including a decline in overall travel due to the weak economy and a continuing reduction in business travel on all modes of transportation nationwide. Amtrak will not speculate on the additional impact, if any, on ridership due to the war with Iraq. A multi-faceted security program is in place and Amtrak is working closely with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. - March 25, 2003 

Airlines Cut Capacity

Delta joined other carriers in announcing a cut of 12% in capacity. Seasonal Boston-Rome and Cincinnati-Rome service will be cut and flights to other unspecified transatlantic cities will also be suspended soon. Previously a number of other carriers announced reductions in capacity in response to the opening days of the war in an effort to soften the financial hit they are taking.  American said it will reduce its international capacity 6%. Northwest will cut capacity by about 12% and remove 20 aircraft from service, laying off another 4,900 employees. Neither carrier said it will end service at a city altogether. Meanwhile United cited a "dramatic decrease" in bookings and US Airways said it expects its traffic to drop 20% for the "near-term". It said bookings dropped almost 40% on March 19, the first day of the war. - March 25, 2003

Cruise Bookings

While it may not be representative of the cruise line industry as a whole, Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise operator, said that its fiscal second-quarter bookings and some of its even more vital third-quarter (June through August) bookings are suffering due to the war with Iraq and the threat of terrorism. The industry giant reported that occupancy levels for its second-quarter cruises are currently at 86 percent, down from 92 percent a year earlier. As a result, Carnival says they have had to resort to price discounting, falling in line with other cruise lines' efforts, indicating that these effects are being experienced across the cruise line industry. Although bookings are expected to rebound rapidly if the war in Iraq is brief, Carnival executives admit that prices may remain low for an extended period of time. - March 24, 2003

Receptive Pre-Sell

While pre-sell of leisure bookings for receptive operators are no longer posting the 40% - 50% gains over the prior year that companies had come to enjoy in January, it could be worse. For the week ending Sunday, March 23rd (which includes the first five days of the war with Iraq), pre-sell for receptive operator Tourco held steady at + 6.5% over the same period in 2002.  Tourco is a strong receptive operator on the east coast and pre-sell has averaged + 6% - 7% for a number of weeks following the initial downturn from January booking levels as the war rhetoric heated up. The UK and Germany are Tourco's number one and number two markets in Europe, followed by a group that includes Switzerland, Italy and France. - March 24, 2003

Cancellations

So far, indications from a wide cross section of the U.S. travel industry are that consumers are postponing rather than canceling trips. Consumers are taking advantage of recently announced relaxed cancellation policies by various segments of the industry but airlines in particular, and are simply rebooking within one to three months in anticipation of an early end of hostilities and a return to normalcy. For a historical perspective, immediately following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, most trips were rebooked within one to three months. - March 20, 2003 

Fuel Availability

"Consumers can be confident in the continuing reliability of fuel supplies. Gasoline and diesel fuel inventories are adequate to meet normal demand and refinery production remains strong.  Motorists should continue to purchase gasoline as they usually would," said the joint statement issued today by AAA -- the nation's largest organization for motorists, the American Petroleum Institute, the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, the Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America, the Service Station Dealers of America and Allied Trades and NATSO, the association representing America's travel plazas and truckstops.  - March 20, 2003 

The Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) is a Washington DC based, non-profit association that represents and speaks for the common interests and concerns of all components of the U.S. travel industry.