US Travel Industry Calls For 100 Per Cent Tax Relief

by Leroy Baker, Tax-News.com, New York

27 September 2001

In a bid to revive the US travel industry following the September 11 terrorist attacks, industry leaders have urged President Bush to consider a 100 per cent tax deduction for all travel expenses in the country. At a meeting in Washington earlier this week Marilyn Carlson Nelson, boss of Carlson Companies Incoroporated, told Commerce Secretary Donald Evans: 'To get America moving, we need to start moving Americans.'

Nelson said that a 10 per cent fall in travel and tourism in the US would see 1.2 million people lose their jobs and a 30 per cent decline would result in the loss of 2.4 million jobs. Around 17 million people make up America's travel industry workforce and earns the government a cool $99 billion in tax revenue each year.

Doug Cody, a Carlson spokesman, told journalists that a third of the country's 300,000 travel agent jobs could be cut and they are likely to be permanent. And Jonathan Tisch, ceo of Loews Hotels and chairman of the 60-member Travel Business Roundtable, has confirmed that his business has fallen between 50 to 60 per cent since the terrorist attacks. 'The pain is being felt through the industry,' Tisch said, 'if a person is not using a travel agent to book flights, they're not on the airplane, they're not staying in hotels, they're not renting a car, they're not eating in a restaurant and they're not shopping in retail.'

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