Last week, Caroline Beteta, California Tourism CEO and National Chair of the U.S. Travel Association, wrote a piece in the Sacramento Business Journal which stressed the point that the media is bent on keeping the anti-travel rhetoric alive, inspite of the issue having lost its potency beyond companies which recieved a TARP bailout.

Meetings Mean Business

She singles out a CBS affiliate that sent undercover reporters to a Palm Springs resort to cover the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials convention, where CALTRANS employees were meeting with federal officials.

Meanwhile, back in Washington DC, the anti-travel rhetoric’s latest target is the DHS. The DHS Inspector-General released a report on Friday which noted that from 2005 to 2007, Homeland Security spent $110 million on conference-related activities.

Even though the report also praised Homeland Security’s CFO for issuing a department wide policy on employee travel expenses and conference planning in October 2008, the media has already begun to use bits and pieces of the report to create a controversy where none exists.

Here’s an example – Millions spent on security retreats…This kind of sensationalist journalism threatens to derail the economy a lot more than any real or percieved excess in corporate travel.

Caroline Beteta, in her article, makes this crystal clear by pointing out that the convention attended by CALTRANS employees generated an economic impact of $1 million to the Palm Springs region and is helping secure federal funding for the state’s road projects.

U.S. businesses spent more than $200 billion on business-related travel in 2008. An Oxford Economics study commissioned by the U.S. Travel Assoc. showed that for every dollar spent on business travel, companies realize $12.50 in incremental value and $3.80 in profits. 

Meetings, events and performance incentive travel in the United States are responsible for almost 15% of all domestic travel, generating 1 million jobs and $27 billion in wages.

A recent Ypartnership survey showed that 35% of those surveyed are planning on fewer meetings in 2010 due to fears over attendant publicity and image issues. This would result in a $2.5 billion economic impact loss for local economies.

In order to send this message to the media that less meetings mean lost business, an alliance of Meetings Industry Groups has come together in a joint venture to fund a new study on the economic benefits of corporate meetings and events. PricewaterhouseCoopers has been hired to complete the study.

The associations party to this effort include the U.S. Travel Association, Convention Industry Council (CIC), Destination Travel Foundation (DMAI), American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA), American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), Meeting Professionals International (MPI), Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA),  International Special Events Society (ISES), and the Association of Destination Management Executives (ADME).

U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow added that “This is a great example of the industry moving forward together.”

In addition to being one of the funding organizations, the U.S. Travel Association’s research team will be the project manager, with the CIC as the contract administrator. The study will take 12 months to complete.