Travel Industry Assn CEO Roger Dow was honored at the TRENDS 2008 Salute to Association Excellence, Feb. 15 in Washington. Also honored were the winners of the 2007 All-Media Contest and the 2007 Young & Aspiring Association Professionals.
...I’d like to share something that I think is so important. When I was on the board of [the American Society of Assn Executives], the phrase for so many years, and it’s so true, was “Assns Advance America.” And you really realize how much they do.
We got a challenge we’re all facing. It’s a challenge that impacts not just the travel industry, but affects everyone of us as an American. In 1992 – that’s 15 years ago – 9% of the global travelers came and visited from around the world. Nine percent – 1 in 10 came to the US. By 2000 – we hadn’t even had Sept. 11 yet – that had slipped to 7.5%. Last year it was 6%. We’ve lost 37% of our market share. The global pie of people traveling is growing. Our slice is shrinking.
Why is that important? Is that just a travel problem, filling hotels? No. It’s an America problem. It’s a problem because that’s how people get to know us. When they come and visit us and see who we are. When they see the diversity, they see all that America is about. They see the freedom, they travel around. They get to know us.
We have to tell the story of why we’re doing this. And it’s one of the most important things we’re working on. We’ve got going through Congress right now something called the Travel Promotion Act. Because what’s happened around the world is that they’ve discovered this darling called travel and tourism. They discovered this darling called the meetings and convention business. Dubai, Shanghai, you should see the sites that are being built over there for conventions that will compete for [business from] many of the best nations that we hold so dear.
So the Travel Promotion Act is really to begin telling the story of why we’re doing these things.... We need your help to pass this, it’s so important to the vitality of this nation. We’re moving it forward. We found a way that not a dollar comes out of the American taxpayers, that the industry puts some skin in the game, that we’re there. That’s so critical, that so many people have worked on the iterations of this and moving it forward. So I ask your help. I guess in closing, a couple things: One, when I grew up, my parents always told me that the three R’s were important: reading, writing and arithmetic. So I look at my children, I said there’s a fourth R, and that’s roaming. You need to roam around the world. That’s why Blake went to school in London, that’s why he spent some time in Kenya. That’s why Devon spent some time in Spain, and is going elsewhere. Because if our children roam around the world, if we roam around the world, the world roams around here, then we’ll thrive. If we put a wall around this country, and we say, “go away,” then we’ll wither. And that’s the crossroads we’re at, and I think it’s so important. I was driving in this morning, got up early because I hadn’t figured out what I was going to say yet. My friends from Marriott know that’s the truth. So I thought I’d get up early, maybe make a few notes. I was driving across the 14th Street Bridge. It was about five of 7 [o’clock], the sun was coming up, I looked out and I saw the Washington Monument, I saw the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson – I saw the city coming alive, the cranes going up and down, and I said, yeah, it’s going to be OK. It is going to be OK if the folks, all of us in this assn community, this travel community, do the right thing. It’s about our future, it’s about our vitality....
