Dear President …

The presidents of two industry groups sent open letters to President Obama and Congressional leaders outlining plans to spur economic growth and job creation in the U.S. The letters were sent in advance of the White House Jobs Summit December 10.

“We urge you to work with Congress to unlock the power of the travel community to put Americans back to work with tax incentives for job-creating travel, targeted efforts to promote international travel and government funding to remove roadblocks to an efficient travel infrastructure,” said U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow, who offered seven specific proposals in his letters.

“There’s no doubt that if we can stimulate travel, this industry can help to turn the economy around,” said Dow. Nearly 400,000 combined U.S. travel industry jobs were lost in 2008 and 2009, according to USTA. Citing the projected addition of nearly 90,000 American travel jobs in 2010, due to modest increases in travel volume and spending, Dow said the numbers demonstrate the industry’s ability to quickly create employment opportunities.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) sent similar letters, focusing on three areas that can help build employment opportunities in the $140 million U.S. lodging and travel industry.

“The current economic downturn has impacted the U.S. hospitality industry particularly hard. As an industry which employs tens of thousands of Americans, we strongly support initiatives that will result in our ability to increase employment even more in our sector of the economy,” said Joseph A. McInerney, AH&LA president and CEO, and Marlene Colucci, AH&LA executive vice president of Public Policy.

The letter called for reinstatement of the business travel tax deduction for spouses; restoration of the 80 percent tax deduction for business meals; and passage of the Travel Promotion Act (S. 1023), which would establish a public-private information campaign attracting a projected 1.6 million new international visitors, creating $4 billion in new spending and sending $321 million to the U.S. Treasury as revenue.

AHLA’s December 1 letter can be found in its entirety at www.ahla.com under “Governmental Affairs.”

Visit www.tia.org to download the USTA letter.