By Rich Thomaselli

TravelPulse

The U.S. Travel Association hopes to meet with the Biden administration soon to push the new president into authorizing tax credits to stimulate new travel, USTA president-CEO Roger Dow said during a virtual press conference.

“Things like tax credits for travel — personal and group — and stimulating travel,” Dow said, would be welcome to help stimulate the stagnant industry, which has suffered greatly in the last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dow, who has said several times that research shows that one of every 10 jobs in the U.S. is travel-related, noted that “one of the best ways and quickest ways to put people back to work and get America moving again will be through travel. So that’s a big priority of our discussions with them.”

A travel tax credit allows people to deduct a certain percentage of their domestic travel costs from their federal income taxes.

Dow likened the travel industry to the automobile manufacturing industry.

“It used to be said, ‘As goes General Motors so goes the U.S. economy,’” he said. “As we’ve seen in the last nine months, as goes travel goes the U.S. economy. When people are not moving, commerce is not moving.”

Erin Francis-Cummings, CEO of Destination Analysts, was also on the conference call and said she believes leisure travel will be back this year.

“We see a spike in July,” she said. “There’s a ramp-up, but a real spike for July as the month where most Americans say they have plans to travel.”

The vaccine helps, she said.

“It’s probably the most critical factor in Americans feeling safe to travel,” Francis-Cummings said.