A call for balance: please write to the President

I have two confessions. I have never written a letter to the President and I have been a lifelong supporter of the Democratic Party.

Today I wrote to President Obama to urge him to restore some balance on the issue of corporate and incentive travel

I pointed out that travel/hospitality/foodservice are cornerstone industries for our economy; that casting corporate and incentive travel in a negative light can further weaken our economic situation severely and cause millions more to lose jobs.

Travel is the engine of doing business. While AIG is the supreme example of excess in incentive trips, this cannot be used to say all incentive trips are excessive, junkets, etc.

People need rewards and praise for doing their best - no question.
And conventions and trade shows also serve to bring buyers and sellers together to communicate, and to facilitate what is most needed in our country right now - the flow of business as usual.

Please take a minute today and write to President Obama. The time for supporting our industry is NOW. There is much more that can be said on this topic but this needs to be turned in a positive direction quickly.

Tags: and, convention, hospitality, incentive, junkets, restaurants, travel, trips

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Comment by susan holaday on March 5, 2009 at 1:50pm: No, no - some in Congress are urging bans on travel for business is what some media sources are reporting - that's what I was referring to. I was suggesting people urge their representatives and the President to consider the importance of business travel to the economy - the industry, as Tammy points out, is responding at the moment with an ad campaign that sound like it should be a good start at getting the message across.

Comment by Steve Paterson on March 5, 2009 at 1:22pm: "Congress are trying to limit travel for everyone"

Susan....sorry if I missed the boat here, but this is the first I heard that Congress is trying to limit travel for everyone.

Please elaborate

Comment by susan holaday on March 5, 2009 at 1:11pm: I think the issue is not about companies receiving bailout money as much as the fact that the media has jumped all over them for being excessive and now some in Congress are trying to limit travel for everyone -blaming won't resolve the problems we have. But neither will saying it's bad to attend business meetings and conventions and take business trips - those are the way business gets done, good performance gets rewarded (incentive travel), etc. Let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater here!

Comment by Steve Paterson on March 5, 2009 at 12:42pm: US Travel Association issues guidelines for companies that received federal lending...

http://www.ustravel.org/resources/Public_Affairs/Model_Policy_09.pdf

NRA Website www.restaurant.org makes no mention of the above issues on its Government Relations page. WTF?

At least the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Assoc. made a statement about Corporate Travel Cancellations.
http://www.flra.com/

To put things in perspective, we've had companies receive 10's of billions of dollars, only to hand out billions in bonuses. The initial round of checks had no strings attached because the government trusted these companes would do the right thing. Just like they were doing the right thing that got us in this mess in the first place.

If I were making the rules, I'd keep them fairly simple.
All travel expenses must be the most economical as possible.
Plane tickets must be purchased weeks in advance and not exceed $200 each way (or whatever). No first or business class tickets may be purchased for any travel.
Meal expenses should not exceeed $10/person for breakfast, $15/person for lunch and $40/person dinner. Anything exceeding this will be paid for by the individuals.
Hotel rates should never exceed $100/person daily and if possible, should be less.
All non business related expenses...(entertainment, tourism, recreation etc) will not be subsidized by the taxpayers. Individuals are responsible for these expenses (I'd be okay with tax deductable here).

With the numbers above, Vegas would still get its share, as would Orlando, New Orleans and many other 'travel destinations'.

And when in front of Congress, the leaders of these companies could show their $69 Jet Blue tickets, their $49 hotel room receipts (not the garden suite with 3 rooms and a balcony) and their 3 course meal receipts with two glasses of $7/glass domestic wine.

Of course, if this were reality, I guess we wouldn't be having this discussion in the first place.

Comment by susan holaday on March 5, 2009 at 8:30am: I saw something about this - I'm going to contact my state senator and congressman too.

Comment by Debra Straka on March 5, 2009 at 8:18am: Susan,
The Wall Street Journal March 4th edition has a great article on this subject: "Travel Industry Slams Obama, Congress Proposals in New Ads" by Elizabeth Williamson.
She writes that: "The travel industry is taking aim at Democrats' efforts to limit luxury travel by companies that accept government bailouts with a new advertising campaign that says the attacks on travel are costing jobs."
One of four print ads in the campaign includes a photograph of the back of President Barack Obama's head, superimposed over an empty stadium. 'Imaginge holding a convention and no one showed up,' the headline says. 'Until political conventions are held via conference call, we shouldn't expect business to do so either,' the text reads."
Another advertisement run in Washington print media Wednesday was headllined: 'Want to lose one million more jobs? Just keep talking.'
The full article can be found at http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB1236205545381-1MyQjAxMDI5MzA2NTIwM

Comment by Howard Appell on March 5, 2009 at 7:58am: I agree to disagree.

Comment by susan holaday on March 5, 2009 at 6:39am: Let's agree to disagree. I scream at my TV too. I think when high ranking U.S. officials go oversees it's on business, not for a personal jaunt, and they usually do meet with presidents an even the Pope - doesn't make them thieves. Yes, times are awful and banks need to start lending again, ASAP. My bank just started calling small businesses and inviting them in to talk about lines of credit, so I see a ray of hope that this will spread and the freeze on credit will end.

Comment by Howard Appell on March 5, 2009 at 6:11am: I was so mad at her I was screaming at the TV during the address to Congress. Calling for higher taxes and spending it before it was collected. What did her trip accomplish? Why did she have to meet with the Pres. of Italy or the Pope. Let her and the rest of the theives pay for their own dam trips. I want to go to Italy too, but I have to run a business that is under attack from incompetant leaders of the banking and financial markets. Try and get a loan to run your business now. Even if your credit score is near 800 they will laugh at you. I always said let the government leave me alone and I will leave them alone. Now they are in my face and I am mad as hell. I'm taking venting on your blog post, I'm sorry.

Comment by susan holaday on March 5, 2009 at 6:03am: Thanks Howard, for clarifying that! I've been feeling a bit beaten up on on FOHBOH blogs lately!!