The U.S. Travel Association responded to President Trump's 30-day suspension of foreign travel from 26 European countries as the administration aims to limit the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).
U.S. Travel President and CEO Roger Dow acknowledged that "public health is the top concern" but urged the government to be "equally aggressive" in its efforts to protect the millions of Americans who work in the travel space.
"In taking aggressive steps to protect the public against coronavirus, the U.S. government should now consider equally aggressive steps to protect America's workforce and employers. The public's health is the top concern, but now the policy conversation must address the health of the economy," Dow said in a statement on Thursday.
"Temporarily shutting off travel from Europe is going to exacerbate the already-heavy impact of coronavirus on the travel industry and the 15.7 million Americans whose jobs depend on travel," he added. "We have and will continue to engage Congress and the administration on policy steps that are necessary to ensure that travel employers-83 percent of which are small businesses-can keep the lights on for their employees."
While the temporary travel suspension doesn't apply to the United Kingdom nor U.S. citizens, the impact on the travel industry projects to be significant.
According to U.S. Travel economists, as many as 850,000 international visitors flying from Europe-not including the UK-entered the U.S. in March 2019. Those visitors accounted for approximately 29 percent of total overseas arrivals to the U.S. and spent approximately $3.4 billion.
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