IITA Advocacy This Week at DCH - Relevant and Effective for Inbound Travel

IITA hit Capitol Hill this week with key messages and specific asks for members of Congress and administration officials. Destination Capitol Hill (DCH), the industry’s annual legislative event brought together 400 travel professionals from across the country to converge on policymakers stressing the economic importance of travel and tourism.

In recent surveys, inbound operators shared that they’re seeing slowed bookings and some cancellations from many markets in the first quarter of 2025 because of the perfect storm of issues. Several new policies of the Trump administration – including broadly-imposed tariffs, the crackdown on immigration, and mass layoffs of federal employees like national park workers and aviation experts – are already impacting visitation numbers.

These actions layered on top of international travelers’ safety concerns – the strength of the dollar and high U.S. prices, and backlogs in visa processing from several source markets – stand to have a negative impact on the visitor experience and continue to cause potential visitors to rethink their travel plans.

Each year during Destination Capitol Hill, U.S. Travel Association schedules travel professionals to meet with their state’s representatives and senators to educate them on the economic Power of Travel.  IITA takes a slightly different targeted approach to meet with the leaders and staff of the congressional committees and subcommittees that oversee tourism, visas and entry procedures and national parks to ensure the people creating policy impacting the travel industry get real-time data and consumer sentiment about visiting the United States.

“There’s a method to our madness,” said Peter van Berkel, IITA’s Advocacy Committee Chair and president of Travalco. “We (inbound operators) are the ‘boots on the ground’ connected to markets around the world. Our insights are very important as inbound travel is considered the number one service export for the U.S. generating historically-high positive trade balances and supporting nearly 400 thousand jobs.”

The IITA Advocacy Team, led by IITA Chair Lena Ross and van Berkel, met with members of Congress in both Houses and on both sides of the aisle, as well as administration officials to heighten their recognition of real and potential consequences of the administration’s actions are affecting inbound travel at a time when the U.S. is poised for growth. The number of major events coming to the U.S. over the next several years have the potential to significantly boost inbound travel and regain some of the country’s lost market share of global travelers.

The IITA Team emphasized that the administration needed a high-level voice to counter the media attention on the crackdown on immigration with a welcoming message to international travelers to clarify the difference between immigration and visitation. Other key “asks” in the meetings included:

• Removing barriers to entry including expedited visa processing and seamless entry systems
• Support for Brand USA Reauthorization
• Support for the Visa Waiver Program which has a high security agreement with other countries
• Exempting national parks and federal lands from the hiring freeze and staff cuts to ensure proper functioning and management of the parks for quality visitor experiences
• Reauthorization of the Great American Outdoors Act

The meetings generated meaningful dialogue and sparked ideas that the Advocacy Committee will be exploring in the coming weeks. The group will report out on further actions that both IITA leadership and members can take to build on the DCH momentum.

Members participating in the IITA meetings were:

• Lena Ross, IITA Chair and COO, America 4 You
• Peter van Berkel, IITA Advocacy Chair and President, Travalco
• Richard Groesz, IITA Treasurer, Member of the Advocacy Committee, and partner in American Ring Travel
• Jason Murray, Board Director, Member of the Advocacy Committee, and President, Southwest Adventure Tours
• Marco Jahn, Member of the Advocacy Committee, and President, New World Travel
• Roie Zuk, President at Amadeo Travel Solutions
• Petra Hackworth, Vice President Impacts & Insights, Travel Oregon
• Lisa Simon, CEO | Executive Director, IITA
• Steve Richer, DC Consultant, Richer Advisors
• Julie Heizer, IITA Ambassador