In conversations during sales missions and sales calls, during phone calls with colleagues and at industry trade shows—including last week’s RTO Summit West in Marina del Rey, California—the reaction and behavior of the USA’s inbound tour and travel industry toward President Donald Trump and what he has said or done that has frustrated and flummoxed them seems to comport with the stand taken by the industry’s chief lobbyist in Washington D.C.—the U.S. Travel Association:
“US Travel has worked successfully with administrations on both sides of the aisle throughout out 75-year existence,” said Patricia Rojas-Ungár, the association’s vice president, government relations, in a statement posted on US Travel’s website, adding, “Given our legislative history, our economic clout, and the importance of travel to our way of life, we are confident that we will be able to engage with President-elect Trump effectively and productively.”
On one level, most tour and travel industry professionals have a reaction to Trump that is viscerally negative; on another level—the rational, real-world of sales and marketing the Visit USA product—there is the realization that one still has to work and sell in the marketplace.
We’ll just have to do so differently, said Jake Steinman, founder and president of the NAJ Group, during a brainstorming session of nearly 100 industry professionals that took place during NAJ’s RTO Summit West. “For the past eight years, we’ve been on offense. For the next four years, we’ll have to be on defense,” he said, adding, “We have to remain positive.”
Some other voices from the session—in which participants were called upon to discuss among themselves at tables arranged by industry segment the impact of President Donald Trump and his executive order imposing a ban on travel from certain overseas country markets—include the following:
—While acknowledging that “it’s great” that US Travel has forged a position that the industry can get behind, Lauren Rogers, director of global tourism, Simon Property Group, said, “But it’s up to us to say ‘You’re welcome,’ and that race, religion and sexual orientation doesn’t matter.”
—“We’re going to have to take a wait-and-see position,” Terry Selk, executive director of the Yosemite/Mariposa County Tourism Bureau, told his colleagues. “You have to be in the marketplace in good times and bad,” he added, pointing out that other countries “have experienced worse turmoil than we’re experiencing … actually the exchange rate is a greater danger.”
—Summing up the discussion at her table, Rachel Bremer, global trade manager, Utah Office of Tourism Film & Global Branding, said, “We really need to stay apolitical and positive.”
—Adding a historical perspective to the discussion, Juan Sepulveda, wholesale / leisure sales manager at Paramount Hotel Times Square New York, noted: “What we’re going through is nothing compared to what Argentina and Brazil and Venezuela have experienced … things that happened out there are now happening to us.”
—Pepe Avila, director of tourism development at Visit Anaheim, noted that, in the past week, his organization had just entertained trade groups and/or journalists from the Middle East, Japan and Mexico. “We cannot stop travel,” he said. “Travel is one of the last arsenals of diplomacy.”
And, lest suppliers believe that there is no Trump factor with potential international travelers, Timo Kohlenberg, president and CEO of Germany’s America Unlimited tours, on Feb. 11th posted midst the company’s appearance at the Abf Hannover—it is a trade show for adventure/active tourism): “Great times at Abf Hannover. If only there weren’t the Trump comments.”
