Winter is out. Business Travel is on The Move.

Winter is out. Business Travel is on The Move.

U.S business travel is expected to continue its surge in 2014 despite a record-breaking, seemingly endless winter where the effects of the polar vortex and multiple snowstorms halted travel across much of the country. Despite all of this, for the second quarter in a row, we are increasing our business travel spending forecast for this…

Taxman: Taxes and Fees on Travel Reaching the Tipping Point

It’s Tax Day in the United States – the dreaded day for many on which individual income tax returns are due to the federal government. The Beatles 1966 hit song “Taxman” tells a story of despair at being overtaxed to the breaking point. If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street If you try…

White House Business Council Briefing on Travel & Tourism
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White House Business Council Briefing on Travel & Tourism

Last week I participated in the White House Business Council briefing on travel and tourism in the U.S. Administration officials gave an update on the economy and discussed how the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other Agencies work to promote travel and tourism from, to and within the United States. The meeting was an…

Latest Forecast Shows Good News for Western Europe

Today, GBTA released our latest GBTA BTI™ Outlook – Western Europe report, a semi-annual analysis of the five most critical business travel markets in Europe: Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain. These five markets together form the lion’s share of business travel in the region acting as a good barometer of the health of…

Looking Up: Business Travel to Fly Higher in 2014

We released our latest U.S. quarterly forecast last week and it is filled with positive news! Business travel spending finished out 2013 with better than expected growth and is poised for even greater growth in 2014. There has been a great deal of media interest in this report and I found many reporters asking me…

Caucusing About Travel

Caucusing About Travel

We met last week with Representative Gus Bilirakis (R) from Florida’s 12th District, who represents the fast-growing Tampa Bay region of Florida’s Gulf Coast. Recently, Rep. Bilirakis joined Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) to co-chair the Congressional Travel and Tourism Caucus, which includes a bi-partisan group of over 90 Congressmen. The good news is that we…

TSA’s Pistole Coming to Convention
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TSA’s Pistole Coming to Convention

I was very pleased when U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator John S. Pistole accepted our invitation to be a featured speaker at this year’s 2014 GBTA Convention in Los Angeles. Of all the agencies and government officials the GBTA Government Relations team deals with, it’s the TSA officers that interact with you and your…