Todd Davidson
The U.S. Travel Association named Todd Davidson, CEO of Travel Oregon, as its national chairman. News Editor Johanna Jainchill spoke with Davidson about why leisure travel is essential to a healthy life and a better economy, how to create more jobs and why Americans need to use their vacation days.
Q: After eight consecutive months of gains, travel employment declined slightly by 4,000 jobs in March. Is this cause for concern?
A: One month does not mark a trend. The slight drop ... was the first decline in nine months, and we're still outpacing job growth in the rest of the economy by a wide margin. The pause was likely a reflection of a sluggish month for job growth overall in March due to lower oil prices and extended winter weather across the Northeast and Midwest.
Q: What initiatives would help increase travel employment numbers?
A: There are a few things Washington can do. First would be to pass the Jolt Act, a piece of legislation that would expand and strengthen the Visa Waiver Program that brought 20 million visitors to the U.S. in 2014 alone, generating $190 billion in economic output and supporting a million unexportable American jobs. Expanding the Visa Waiver Program to countries like Argentina, Brazil, Israel and Poland, among others, could add more than $7 billion to the U.S. economy and support more than 400,000 additional American jobs. We've made strides improving our customs entry process so that inbound visitors are not waiting in line for hours, but we still have work to do. More than anything, we need to modernize our airports and aviation infrastructure, which are a disgrace compared to the rest of the developed world and are costing us routes and visitors. Every 36 overseas visitors create one job, so the more we can do to welcome the rest of the world, the greater the direct benefit.
Q: What are your main priorities coming into this position?
A: It's a two-pronged approach: ensuring that policy makers and opinion leaders fully understand that travel is critical to our economy and essential to our lives. ... Over 30% of visitors [to Oregon] said they purchase Oregon products once they return home; 2% to 3% are now interested in considering Oregon as a place to either relocate or expand operations. This is a much more complete story on the impact of travel and tourism. ... Research indicates that travel is not only good for our economy but good for us as people, for our relationships, our health, that children who travel perform better in school.
Q: Did U.S. Travel's Project Time Off campaign have anything to do with MasterCard's ads about not using vacation days?
A: It is the Project Time Off research done by U.S. Travel and brought to life by MasterCard with the "One More Day" campaign. There have been some terrific campaigns around this message, like Idaho's "18 Summers." The message there is you have 18 summers with your kids before they go to college. What will you do to take advantage of that time? It's highly emotional and creates a sense of urgency. It's really just brilliant work.