USTA Calls for Consistent Health Standards for Business Travel and Meetings
Association says only 35% of companies are currently sending employees on the road >>
by: Harvey Chipkin
Lingering COVID restrictions and a patchwork approach to reopening across the country will prevent the economically crucial business travel segment from recovering until at least 2024, according to a Tourism Economics analysisreleased Tuesday by the U.S. Travel Association. Tourism Economics is a consulting company. Spending on travel for large, in-person professional meetings and events (PMEs) declined by 76% last year — a $97 billion loss in spending. With vaccinations and infection rates in the US trending favorably, restrictions lowered and traveler confidence rebounding, domestic leisure travel is projected to reach 99% of its pre-pandemic peak in 2022 and to grow steadily thereafter. But in the absence of clear and consistent guidance from federal health authorities on PMEs, business-related travel is not expected to recover its pre-pandemic volume for an additional two years. Only about a third (35%) of US businesses, according to U.S. Travel, are currently engaging in any business-related travel. One of the major factors in the slow return of PMEs, according to the organization, is the uneven patchwork of guidance that currently governs large gatherings from jurisdiction to jurisdiction nationwide. The association is urging the adoption of federal guidance that is clear and consistent — and that recognizes that health and safety measures can be more readily implemented at PMEs than at other forms of large gatherings. Polling cited by U.S. Travel indicates that 85% of American workers view in-person events as “irreplaceable,” and 81% who attended work-related PMEs before the pandemic miss doing so and are likely to attend such events in the future. U.S. Travel CEO Roger Dow said that a thriving travel industry — and the broader U.S. economy — “are dependent on the return of business travel and PMEs.” To support the return of professional meetings and events, a coalition of travel industry businesses and organizations, under the U.S. Travel umbrella, is also launching an initiative called “Let’s Meet There” to advance the full and safe reopening of the business travel sector. “Let’s Meet There” will be detailed at a press event in Las Vegas on June 16.
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