By Tom McClimon
October 20, 2003

Under the direction of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, Chair of the Conference's Task Force on Travel and Tourism, mayors were briefed on the current status of the travel and tourism industry and federal action to support it. In her remarks, Franklin briefed the mayors on the status of the Mayors Ten-Point Action Plan which was adopted by the Task Force at its Atlanta meeting held last year. Franklin noted that of the original 10 points, success had been achieved on 4 of the items — creation of a destination marketing pilot program, increased funding for Commerce's Market Development Cooperator Program, enactment of legislation similar to the American Travel Promotion Act, and the launching of the Transportation Security Administration's Prepare to Take-Off initiative. Franklin called for the mayors to adopt four new items to replace the 4 points that had been achieved. The 4 new points are: work with the federal government on visa policy changes and reforms; secure homeland security funds directly to cities; support funding for Amtrak; and encourage more media stories on travel and tourism. (See accompanying story on page 9).

Conference Executive Director Tom Cochran reviewed the important linkage between travel and tourism, and local economies. He referred to remarks made earlier in the meeting by Miami Mayor Manuel Diaz, Chair of the Conference's Arts, Parks, Entertainment and Sports Committee who talked about the importance of arts, and travel and tourism to Miami's economy, adding that the economic impact of the arts and travel and tourism would be the major focus of the work of his Committee in the upcoming year.

Jonathan Tisch, Chair of the Travel Business Roundtable, addressed the mayors and thanked them for this historic partnership between mayors and the private sector on travel and tourism issues. "Travel and tourism unites cities," stated Tisch who briefed the mayors on the status of the $50 million appropriated to the Department of Commerce to promote international destination marketing. While no final decisions have been made, it appears that $10 million will be allocated for regional efforts to promote themselves to five countries — England, Germany, Canada, Mexico, and Japan. The remaining $40 million will be spent on national advertising campaigns promoting the U.S. in those five countries.

Spurgeon Richardson, Chair of the International Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus and President of the Atlanta Convention and Visitor Bureau, along with Michael Gehrisch, President and CEO of the International Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus pledged to the mayors their organization's continued support to the mayors- travel and tourism efforts. They invited mayors to join IACVB at its annual meeting next year in Boston and offered to assist the Conference in further studies that quantify the importance of travel and tourism to local economies.

Rick Rodriguez, General Manager of The Travel Channel, briefed the mayors on his network's programs to promote travel and tourism. He stated that the Travel Channel has over 100 million viewers overseas and they are helping to promote U.S. cities aboard. He invited the mayors to work with The Travel Channel on some of its programs as "Secrets Of" (which he previewed a show on Long Island which features Conference President Mayor James Garner), "Made in America" and "Destinations USA." The Travel Channel is currently working with a number of cities — Boston, Atlanta, and Chicago on promoting their attractions.