Millions of Travel Jobs Could Disappear Permanently

U.S. Travel Association executive vice president of public affairs and policy Tori Emerson Barnes called on Congress to "resume talks and move forward on much-needed coronavirus-related economic relief," following the negotiation breakdown last week. "The travel and tourism industry accounts for 38 percent of all U.S. jobs lost so far, and travel companies — 83 percent of which are small businesses — remain particularly vulnerable to the economic impact of the health crisis."

Barnes also stated that the Paycheck Protection Program needs to be extended immediately, and its eligibility expanded, "or else millions of travel jobs are likely to disappear permanently and a U.S. recovery will be severely weakened before it even starts. Failing to move a package that would fill in some of the blanks of earlier relief rounds would be a tragic outcome for Americans on every rung of the economic ladder, and we hope leaders can recommit to continuing these negotiations this week."

She praised earlier rounds of legislative relief, but added that "they left a huge American sector exposed to the worst of the pandemic’s economic fallout: travel, which last year supported employment for one in 10 Americans but has now seen more than half its U.S. jobs wiped out since March."

Last month, U.S. Travel requested that legislators to do the following:

• Extend the Paycheck Protection Program until the end of the year, expanding eligibility to include convention and visitor bureaus, increasing the loan amount and allowing for a second loan
• Provide up to $10 million in federal grants to promote safe and healthy travel practices to help restart the industry
• Issue temporary liability protections for travel businesses to reopen
• Create temporary tax credits, including one to encourage Americans to travel, another to restore activity in the meetings sector and one to help businesses offset the cost of mitigating the spread of COVID-19.