Choice Hotels President and CEO Stephen Joyce last week was named chairman of the U.S. Travel Association, the nonprofit group that represents the travel industry. Joyce, who has served as first vice chair of the group, succeeds Caroline Beteta, president and CEO of the California Travel and Tourism Commission. Hotels editor Jeri Clausing talked with Joyce about what he hopes to accomplish during his two-year term.
Q: Now that the Travel Promotion Act has finally passed, what are the key issues facing the travel industry?
A: I wouldn't characterize TPA as done. It's passed, but now we have to make it happen. So what that means is that it is a lot more than just collecting the fees from the visa entrance. It is about getting the [Transportation Security Administration] and Homeland Security to implement collection of the fees, to get them to improve entry ... making it more friendly.
Anybody who travels internationally can tell you our entry process is the least friendly out there. We've got to improve that.
We've got to assist the Commerce Department in putting the travel corporation [that is to be established under the Travel Promotion Act] together. And then once the organization is in place, we need to encourage private industry to step up and join the travel corporation.
There are two important parts: [there are] the fees that are collected, but equally important is the match from the industry. The combination of the two is what leads up to the potential of roughly $200 million a year to market the country. Both of them need to happen, so there is an enormous amount of work that needs to occur over the next 18 months to two years to make that a reality.
In addition to that, as the corporation is formed, I want to make sure that U.S. Travel remains not only as influential as it is but also grows and becomes more important.
Q: The perception I have always encountered is that the travel industry is very splintered and therefore has never been able to achieve the clout in Washington that might be expected from an industry of its size. Do you think that is true?
A: Clearly. If you look at the industry, it has 7.7 million employees, $770 billion of revenue. Those numbers are enormous. If you look at what we have lost in terms of share of international travelers, it has an enormous impact of tens of billions of dollars of revenue, millions of jobs that would have been created but weren't because we lost ground.
This is an enormous industry. It's bigger than the automotive industry, but you don't hear people talking about the hotel business. The reality is U.S. Travel, in terms of its current size, is disproportionate to what it should be, given the size of the industry. We've got to get going to not only make sure U.S. Travel is relevant, because that has never been more important, but also grow it.
Q: Are there any big-picture, longer-term issues that you want to put on U.S. Travel's agenda?
A: The education piece I think is important. Dialogue about travel tends to be held in a vacuum. ... The idea is to sort of broaden the tent of what is represented by the travel industry so people understand how broad it is. We need to have a much more objective dialogue about the benefits of travel, whether it be meetings or business or leisure, what it does and promotes for the economy as well as people's understanding of the world. For example, how young people who understand the world tend to be better in school, rather than travel being perceived as some guy smoking a cigar at some meeting.