A number of travel organizations working under the U.S. Travel Association umbrella prepared guidelines to assist corporations that use federal emergency loans with satisfying the Treasury Department's requirement that they use taxpayer dollars prudently when paying for meetings and events. Geoff Freeman, senior vice president of public affairs at U.S. Travel, discussed the group effort with Nadine Godwin, Travel Weekly editor at large.
Q: You have created guidelines based on best practices. What next?
A: We've been working aggressively to share them with the administration, at the White House and on Capitol Hill.
The pressure is on.
Q: What has been the response to your various meetings and phone calls?
A: The general feedback is, No. 1, people are receptive; No. 2, they are appreciative; and No. 3, it is hard to get people to focus on this. There is a bit of running around like chickens with their heads cut off, and that atmosphere is our concern.
Q: What is your message to Congress?
A: We've met with the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee to make them aware of the policies.
One message is, tone down the rhetoric. This is one of the biggest problems. People cannot say they are concerned about protecting jobs and then say, "Stop traveling."
The second point is: Ensure no legislation passes that weakens the economy by creating fear among the companies not taking aid from the government. There is no need to do further damage.
And, we say, Congress can embrace the policy standards [created by the travel industry].
Q: What is the response?
A: I don't think the Hill is mollified by what Treasury has done [requiring recipients of federal loans to prepare policies for conferences and events].
But at the committees, the tide is slowly turning. They are beginning to understand the consequences of discouraging business travel, but much more remains to be done.
Q: What kind of response did you get at the Treasury Department?
A: Treasury put out instructions [on spending policies] for those taking loans. They think they have done their job. With the turnover there, it's difficult to get them to focus on this.
Q: You said more must be done. What?
A: We all need to help take the pressure off policymakers by doing a better job of cooling the public outcry [over perceived or truly extravagant travel spending], by explaining better the value of meetings and events. We need to help people understand who the real victims are if travel is cut. It is not the top executives.
We have to be better because elected officials respond to the calls they get.
Also, companies that are taking government loans say they want help in reducing the risk [of bad publicity] when holding meetings and events demanded by their businesses.
Q: Will loan recipients adopt your guidelines?
A: We are talking to many recipients about adopting them. A few companies that are not loan recipients say they'll embrace these to stay out of trouble.
We think policymakers will encourage companies to follow these guidelines, too.
Q: What's the bottom line?
A: We've become a target. It's a wake-up call. We have to do a better job of sharing our story. It's time for our industry to be political.