ASTA Legislative Day 2024: The Travel Advisor Impact

The American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) Legislative Day events kicked off on Monday, Sept. 16, with the fourth annual Travel Industry Forecast with Leading Experts. 

More than 200 travel advisors gathered at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to hear panel discussions on artificial intelligence’s role in travel, corporate-managed travel programs, and airline regulations. 

The conversations, and questions asked by advisors at the end of each panel, aimed to inform their upcoming meetings with Congress members and their staffers on Wednesday, Sept. 18. 

“This program sits at the front of our annual ASTA Legislative Day. We’ll leave here, grab 250 of our best friends, and head to Capitol Hill to tell Congress that we are travel demand creators and a driving force of the American economy,” ASTA President Zane Kerby told the audience and hundreds more watching on a live stream. “The world needs what our members do.” 

Travel advisors and the economy

Kerby went on to give the following statistics:  

• Gen Xers and Baby Boomers, who hold 80% of the country’s wealth, splurge on only two things: groceries and travel. 

• Travelers who book with an advisor spend more and travel longer. 

• Most clients are planning trips 6 to 12 months in advance and are investing an average of $14,000 for a family of four on a seven-day trip. 

He added that more and more, travelers are trusting travel advisors with “their most precious asset: their hard-earned and too often overlooked leisure time.” 

As travel advisors prepare for their meetings this week, they were also given a fact sheet highlighting other important information, such as: 

• Travel advisors sell 59% of cruise bookings, 75% of tour packages, and 40% of all air travel. 

• Travel advisors also sell 735,000 air tickets daily, totaling $95.3 billion in 2023. 

• In the U.S. in 2023, gross travel agency bookings produced $115 billion. 

• By 2026, travel agency sales will comprise 26% of the total travel market, with that share expected to reach $141.3 billion. 

Travel advisors and their clients

In the first panel, moderated by Jackie Friedman, president of Nexion and chair of the ASTA board, two travel advisors brought their own clients to the stage. The clients offered up their personal experience highlighting why AI could never replace their travel advisors. 

Dr. Terika L. Haynes, CEO and co-founder of Dynamite Travel and ASTA’s 2023 Travel Advisor of the Year, welcomed her client, Eboni Moss, to the panel. Moss told the story of how Haynes got her a refund for an expensive tour that she missed in Iceland because a worker there put her on the wrong bus. 

“Tarika was instrumental once we did get back stateside to working with the operator to make sure we got our refund,” Moss said. “She made sure we were taken care of.” 

Wayne Muhlstein, owner of McCabe World Travel, brought his client, Julie Redfern, to speak about her experiences working with him. She reminisced about an unforgettable trip to California with her husband, a longtime Angels baseball fan, for his 60^th birthday.  

Without a travel advisor, “you don’t even know what’s possible,” she said. 

“We had a lovely time. Our room was decorated with all Angels stuff,” she added. “He still keeps the pen and there’s even a toothbrush. We went to a game that was lovely and started working with [Muhlstein] ever since.” 

Travel advisors and the airlines

In the next two panels, one about corporate travel programs and one covering U.S. Department of Transportation regulations, the topic of airlines – namely, American Airlines and its failed NDC rollout – came up frequently. 

“There were things they weren’t ready for, lots of things that didn’t go right there, which is why they did roll back that strategy,” said Rita Vesser, director of global travel sourcing and GPO for Oracle.  

John Breyault, vice president of public policy, telecommunications, and fraud for the National Consumers League, spoke candidly about the very issues that travel advisors will be discussing on Capitol Hill, giving advisors a fresh perspective on them. 

He explained that DOT rulemaking is “a long process,” though the department under Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has made good efforts to regulate the airlines.  

“Even once these rules are completed, these two-year processes, they are often held up in court, as the ancillary fee rule is right now, so it can take years longer for consumers to feel the effect,” he said. “It’s a long process, so that’s why we depend not only on DOT to protect consumers but also Congress.” 

A full recording of the Travel Industry Forecast with Leading Experts is available on the ASTA Facebook page.