Travel CEOs Lay Out Concerns to Trump During First White House Meeting
Skift Take
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
