Press Release

The U.S. Travel Association on Thursday announced the election of Elliott L. Ferguson II, president and CEO of Destination DC, as its new national chair. Ferguson, who served on the board for seven years, succeeds Wyndham Hotels and Resorts’ president and CEO Geoff Ballotti.

The U.S. Travel Association applauds the White House and congressional leaders for reaching an agreement to avert another costly partial federal government shutdown. 

U.S. Travel Association Senior Vice President for Government Relations Tori Barnes issued the following statement on the reintroduction of the Restore Our Parks and Public Lands Act (H.R. 1225) and the Restore Our Parks Act (S. 500).

The U.S. travel community strongly supports Chairman Thompson and Chairman DeFazio’s measure to end the practice of using the ‘9/11’ fee to pay for programs unrelated to air travel security.

Travel to and within the U.S. grew 3.6 percent year-over-year in December, according to the U.S. Travel Association’s latest Travel Trends Index (TTI)—marking the industry’s 108th straight month of overall expansion.

Today is National Plan For Vacation Day, and members of the travel industry are joining with the U.S. Travel Association to encourage all Americans to commit their time off for the rest of the year, at the start of the year.

The U.S. Travel Association has added three key personnel to its Washington, D.C.-based team.

The U.S. travel community thanks the president and congressional leaders for reaching an agreement that hopefully averts further disruption to air transportation, which undoubtedly would have begun to generate downstream economic damage throughout the country.

“This morning’s reports of air traffic control delays are the strongest indication yet that the shutdown runs the risk of sending immediate shockwaves throughout the American economy."

"It is now plainly evident that the shutdown is affecting air travel, and when that happens, damage to the overall U.S. economy will shortly follow."