Travel Agents Advocate On Capitol Hill For Industry And Consumers
by Richard D’Ambrosio /More than 100 travel agents joined industry executives and other advocates this week in Washington, DC, pressing for attention to a myriad of issues facing the profession and consumers.
Agents met with approximately 100 House and Senate members and/or their staff to discuss issues like overtime rules and the recently introduced Travel Agent Retail Fairness Act, the reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and travel to Cuba.
“It’s really important for legislators to meet the names and see the faces of the people who put them in office and are watching how they vote on travel issues,” said Zane Kerby, president & CEO of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA).
“By showing them who we are, who we employ, and that we are paying attention, the government will understand that travel agents watch out for the traveling public. We’re going to fight onerous legislation that is anti-consumer or that impacts our agents business in a negative way.”
ASTA members participate in a legislative session at the Watergate Hotel.
The event, hosted by ASTA, also included the inaugural ASTA Capitol Summit, a meeting hosted at the historic Watergate Hotel.
A key objective this week was garnering additional support for The Travel Agent Fairness Act (H.R. 2515), introduced on May 18, by Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL) and cosponsored by Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV). The bill seeks to remove travel agencies from a Department of Labor (DoL) regulatory “blacklist” that prevents agents from being exempt from overtime rules – as are other retail establishments.
Consumer disclosures
Additionally, one of the perennial issues ASTA and agents face are consumer disclosures inserted into bills like the FAA’s annual reauthorization. According to ASTA, 62% of member interactions with their clients take place over the phone or face-to-face, “so a substantial portion of these travel agency transactions will be particularly impacted under any new, expanded disclosure regime.”
When the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was developing its rules in 2008 for collecting Secure Flight data, ASTA estimated it would costs agents approximately $20 million per year to comply. Travel agents are asking congress to consider ways to lessen the impact of new disclosures on the travel agency community, like exempting agents altogether or exempting phone call and face-to-face transactions (where disclosures are particularly disruptive).
Another simpler alternative includes utilizing the Small Business Administration’s size standards to “carve out” small businesses to creating a unified disclosure regime where consumers can be referred to a single website covering relevant DOT rules and airline policies.
Travel to Cuba
Travel to Cuba is also on the agenda, as there have been rumblings in Washington recently that President Trump will make good on his campaign promise to roll back some or all of the looser rules for travel to the island nation (general tourist travel remains banned under current law).
In late May, the Senate introduced a bill, called the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act, which would permanently remove all remaining travel restrictions to the country. The bill has broad support in the Senate, though some key legislators who oppose more direct trade with communist Cuba have President Trump’s attention.
ASTA supports the bill, seeking general freedoms for Americans “to travel across the globe without restriction and allowing them to act as ambassadors of freedom and American values abroad,” ASTA said in a statement.
“Lifting the travel ban will also bring follow-on economic benefits to Cuba’s neighbors and the travel industry that serves them by sparking demand for new passenger routes, tour operations, and travel agent services.”
ASTA estimates at least two million additional Americans would visit Cuba by 2019 if there were to be a full lifting of travel restrictions in 2017.
ASTA agents on the bus to Capitol Hill to advocate for their profession and consumers.
As part of their program this week, ASTA and member agents also wanted to remind legislators that agents remain responsible for the sale of the majority of airline tickets in the U.S., selling over 430,000 air tickets per day, and are the primary distributors of cruises and tours. In 2015, travel agents processed 155 million trips representing $148 billion of total travel sales, including $88 billion worth of air travel (64 percent of the market); $11 billion in cruises (68 percent) and $12 billion worth of tour packages (66 percent).
ASTA kicked off the meetings by presenting Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) and Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL) the 2017 Global Travel Advocate Award, for their leadership on the Travel and Tourism Caucus and dedication to the travel industry.