Articles tagged “congress”

Amid a softening forecast for domestic travel within the United States and red tape in Washington, D.C., Brand USA still needs a legislative path forward — and time is running out.

Travelers indeed shop all over the place when they are doing trip-planning. But to downplay Google's dominant role, as an exec did Tuesday, when travel brands are spending billions of dollars annually with the search engine-turned-travel-product operator, is disingenuous.

The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, controlled by opposing parties, will be at loggerheads over many issues related to both the travel industry and travelers. However, there will be plenty of wiggle room, if not on airplanes with reduced passenger legroom, then in the halls of Congress, where some legislation will undoubtedly get done.

Midterm elections have rarely been this galvanizing or controversial. For industry observers and executives, the question remains of how changes in Washington will impact the business of travel. With a divided government, expect most of the changes to regulations to come from the Trump administration.

Is the revamped tax code a "gift for hard-working Americans" as President Trump declared, or just a gift for corporations already reaping record profits? For now, travel executives seem way more excited than the general public.

Let's be clear: Not all hotel guests and review-writers are angels. But the solution is not dodgy hotel contracts and taking punitive actions against customers. Business owners, as well as consumers, should remember the wisdom of the crowds is pretty good at protecting from one-sided and impure reviewers.

This isn't a perfect bill for Amtrak, but at this point it's better than stalling its passage for years because of partisan gridlock.

Never say never, but the Transparent Airfares Act looks like it's been grounded with little hope of ever being cleared for take-off.

Were contributions from the travel industry to Brand USA intended to go directly back to the contributing company, at a 30 percent or greater premium, instead of funding broader marketing campaigns to promote inbound tourism to the U.S? That is part of what this lawsuit is about.

It wasn't easy, but Brand USA finally got the reauthorization that it and much of the travel industry coveted.