Three travel advocacy groups find strength in collaboration

WASHINGTON -- In September 2006, an array of travel and travel-related businesses launched the Discover America Partnership, an advocacy group.

The group's purpose was to draw the government's attention to what the industry viewed as a clear and present danger: a significant drop in inbound tourism partly caused by the declining image of the U.S. abroad.

The partnership, working with the Travel Industry Association and the Travel Business Roundtable, went on to develop a blueprint for change, including legislation that would create a $100 million inbound- marketing campaign. That legislation is now pending in Congress.

The success of the partnership, which was slated to be dissolved in December, proved to industry executives that lobbying groups are more effective when they combine their efforts.

"Discover America Partnership taught us all that if we can hone on a very clear set of objectives, focus our resources ... and not get distracted ... we can do great things together," said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the TIA.

Working together, the TIA, TBR and Discover America Partnership attracted 30 co-sponsors in the Senate and 130 in the House for the pending legislation.

"We probably would not have been effective individually with just one of us carrying the water on that bill," Dow said.

Now the three groups intend to continue their collaborative successes by combining into a single organization. The TIA will absorb the Discover America Partnership on Jan. 1.

And the TBR, chaired by Jonathan Tisch, chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels, will move forward with the TIA with a long-discussed merger plan designed to provide the travel industry with "one voice."

Challenges

Bringing the disparate groups together will pose a challenge, since each approaches travel issues from different perspectives.

The Travel Business Roundtable was established in 1995 to pursue travel initiatives developed out of the White House Conference on Travel and Tourism; its membership comprises 70 of the CEOs and senior executives from top travel-related companies.

The Discover America Partnership, headed by Stevan Porter, president of the Americas for InterContinental Hotels Group, has a varied membership that includes the U.S. Olympic Committee, Anheuser-Busch and other companies indirectly related to travel and tourism.

The TIA's membership is dominated by destination marketers, including state tourism directors, convention and visitor bureaus, attractions and suppliers. The organization also sponsors major trade shows such as the International Pow Wow, and it generates most of the travel statistics used by the industry.

But the different approaches notwithstanding, initial steps toward combining the three have already begun.

"We have had [TBR's] executive director, Melissa Gong, in our offices for a year-and-a-half or two years," Dow said. "She works very closely with Rick Webster, our head of government affairs." The Discover America Partnership also has offices at the TIA's headquarters.

Over the next year, the TIA and the TBR will take steps toward establishing a new name for the combined organization, which would debut in 2009.

New issues: TSA, environment

The TIA and TBR are developing a multifaceted public affairs program; internal government relations capabilities; an industrywide, grass-roots program; and a public policy research center.

"We want to expand our tent a bit," Dow said. "But we are going to be very tightly focused. We are going to continue to push on the international issues, as we have been. However, we will probably add one or two others, such as Transportation Security Administration reform.

"The TSA has grown to be an organization that is critical to security, but we also see huge inefficiencies. Those inefficiencies are translating to a lot of people saying, 'I'm just not going to make that trip. It is too much of a hassle' or, 'It's too much trouble.' I think we can work with the administration and Congress to take a hard look at this whole process."

Environmental issues will also be a key focus, Dow said.

Additional partnerships

At the same time, the combined TIA and TBR will work with other groups, often playing a supporting role, Dow said.

"Whether it is the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the National Restaurant Association or the Air Transport Association, they all do a critical job working on the issues that are important to their groups, [such as] immigration reform and work safety rules. These are very important issues to the industry," Dow said.

So far, the other trade groups like what they are hearing.

"Strategically, working with other organizations produces better results, because there is greater strength to go after the big issues," said Lisa Simon, president of the National Tour Association.

"NTA has already teamed with TIA and the Discover America Partnership to address the issue of America's declining image abroad. We believe collaboration is crucial to raising awareness and giving travel and tourism a louder voice in government."

Bill Connors, executive director and COO of the National Business Travel Association, agreed.

"Having one strong voice made up of many varying voices is always good," Connors said. "We are members of both TBR and TIA. Part of the travel industry's problem as an industry is we have always been thought of as a fluff industry among the decision-makers in Washington. We rank way behind steel and agriculture.

"But in fact, we shouldn't be. If you look at the economic impact of the travel industry, it's bigger. Yet we don't have the respect that the other [industries] do. So this is a movement toward having a solid voice with the decision-makers."   

To contact reporter Michael Milligan, send e-mail to [email protected].