Destination Capitol Hill

This past week, GANYC President Michael Dillinger and a number of other members traveled down to Washington DC to participate in Destination Capitol Hill (DCH). This annual event is organized by the U.S. Travel Association and is the "industry's premier legislative fly-in" whose goal is to "educate policymakers about the power of travel".

Among the issues discussed were: how the current rhetoric & actions from the Executive Branch are affecting perceptions among global travelers, the importance of the visa waiver program (a good program with a poor name), a need to increase the airline Passenger Facility Charge (and how that should serve local infrastructure needs), the Open Skies program, and local stories of how travel helps grow our districts.

On the first day, we attended a wonderful series of presentations at the Mayflower Hotel organized by the US Travel Association. Following an opening keynote address by ABC News' Chief Global Correspondent, Martha Raddatz, top leaders from the USTA led some great talks and panels on the key messages of this event. There were organizations in attendance from every state in the country. All had stories about how important travel is to our local economies and culture. Key fact: Travel is in the top 10 industries in 49 of the 50 states (plus the District of Columbia too) in terms of employment. But our importance to the economy, nationally and locally, is often lost in political rhetoric and action. Changing that is a major goal of the DCH event.

That evening, we attended a wonderful networking reception at the Mayflower. We had the pleasure of speaking with many other organizations in the capitol representing the state of New York, including NYC & Company, Discover Long Island, Broadway Inbound, and many others. We look forward to working with all these groups in the future on our shared goals. 

The next day, our members headed to Capitol Hill. Since we had GANYC members from both New York and New Jersey at the event, we were able to meet with the staff of Senators and Representative from both states. The offices we met with include: Senators Schumer, Gillibrand, Booker, and Menendez; and Representatives Pascrell, Maloney, Meng, Crowley, Clarke, Zeldin, Espaillat, Faso, Jeffries, Nadler, Engel, and others. Not only did we impress upon these offices the importance of prioritizing travel policy, but we also made sure that they were aware of GANYC and how we can be their front line in NYC on these issues. We cannot thank enough all of the Representatives and their legislative directors and staff who took the time to speak with us on Wednesday. 

We found this trip to be a very productive start, and we fully intend to return next year.

However, we all can continue this work now. Many offices asked us for examples of groups who are not booking tours to New York and evidence of how the travel ban(s) are directly affecting us. If you have any such stories or examples to share-- or even just opinions on other policies such as travel infrastructure-- please share them with GANYC so that we can boost your voice to our lawmakers. Or, if you wish to contact your Senators and Representatives directly, links to do so can be found on the USA.gov website. 

We also encourage you to share your stories with us on social media. Here's hoping for an amazing 2017 and beyond for travel!

[PS: For images from GANYC's visit to DC, please see our official Instagram account.]