by Donald Wood
Last updated: 9:32 AM ET, Thu February 2, 2023
The U.S. Travel Association announced the launch of new quarterly press conferences that will focus on topics of importance to the growth of the industry.
The first edition of the press conferences featured two industry giants, U.S. Travel President and CEO Geoff Freeman and incoming U.S. Travel National Chair and Hilton President and CEO Chris Nassetta.
Travel Outlook - Media Roundtable (2/1/23) from U.S. Travel on Vimeo.
Freeman and Nassetta offered an industry perspective and recommendations across a set of issues critical to America's travel economy, including visa processing, the domestic aviation system and projections for business and leisure travel.
"Travel is essential to the U.S. economy, and both the public and private sectors have roles in getting this industry to its full potential," Freeman said. "But when we talk about the travel industry, we're really talking about every industry, how travel's growth and success is integral to practically everything from manufacturing to education and far beyond."
For international inbound travel, the executives discussed decreasing unacceptable visitor visa wait times, eliminating vaccine requirements and restoring the Chinese inbound travel market.
In addition, Freeman and Nassetta said more work needs to be done to improve the air travel system, encourage the return of government business travel and leverage the 2022 Bipartisan Infrastructure Act to enable better traveler mobility options.
"We see a number of key opportunities ahead to drive our future growth," Nassetta said. "Travel plays a critical role in America's economic success, but it's much more than that-our industry positively impacts people's lives. I look forward to working even more closely with U.S. Travel, along with our partners across government and industry, to increase travel to and within the United States."
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, be sure to subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter here.
Topics From This Article to Explore
