[Senate Hearing 117-713]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                        S. Hrg. 117-713

                    THE STATE OF TRAVEL AND TOURISM
                              DURING COVID

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                    SUBCOMMITTEE ON TOURISM, TRADE,
                          AND EXPORT PROMOTION

                                 OF THE

                         COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE,
                      SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION
                               __________

                             APRIL 13, 2021
                               __________

    Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
                             Transportation
                             

                  [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]                             


                Available online: http://www.govinfo.gov
                               __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
                    
53-085 PDF                WASHINGTON : 2024                   
                
       SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION


                   MARIA CANTWELL, Washington, Chair
AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota             ROGER WICKER, Mississippi, Ranking
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut      JOHN THUNE, South Dakota
BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii                 ROY BLUNT, Missouri
EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts         TED CRUZ, Texas
GARY PETERS, Michigan                DEB FISCHER, Nebraska
TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin             JERRY MORAN, Kansas
TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois            DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska
JON TESTER, Montana                  MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee
KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona              TODD YOUNG, Indiana
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada                  MIKE LEE, Utah
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico            RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Colorado          SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West 
RAPHAEL WARNOCK, Georgia                 Virginia
                                     RICK SCOTT, Florida
                                     CYNTHIA LUMMIS, Wyoming
                    David Strickland, Staff Director
                 Melissa Porter, Deputy Staff Director
       George Greenwell, Policy Coordinator and Security Manager
                 John Keast, Republican Staff Director
            Crystal Tully, Republican Deputy Staff Director
                      Steven Wall, General Counsel
                                 ------                                

          SUBCOMMITTEE ON TOURISM, TRADE, AND EXPORT PROMOTION

JACKY ROSEN, Nevada, Chair           RICK SCOTT, Florida, Ranking
AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota             DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska
TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois            MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee
JON TESTER, Montana                  RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona              SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West 
JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Colorado              Virginia
                                     CYNTHIA LUMMIS, Wyoming

                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page
Hearing held on April 13, 2021...................................     1
Statement of Senator Rosen.......................................     1
    Letter dated April 13, 2021 to Hon. Jacky Rosen and Hon. Rick 
      Scott from David Audrain, Co-President and David DuBois, 
      CMP, CAE, FASAE, CTA, Co-President, Exhibitions & 
      Conferences Alliance.......................................    39
    Letter dated April 13, 2021 to Hon. Jacky Rosen and Hon. Rick 
      Scott from Brian Crawford, Executive Vice President of 
      Government Affairs, American Hotel & Lodging Association...    40
    Prepared statement from the American Bus Association.........    41
Statement of Senator Scott.......................................     3
Statement of Senator Wicker......................................     4
Statement of Senator Cortez Masto................................     6
Statement of Senator Klobuchar...................................    26
Statement of Senator Sullivan....................................    28
Statement of Senator Cantwell....................................    30
Statement of Senator Sinema......................................    32
Statement of Senator Hickenlooper................................    33
Statement of Senator Blackburn...................................    35

                               Witnesses

Steve Hill, CEO and President, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors 
  Authority......................................................     6
    Prepared statement...........................................     8
Jorge Perez, Regional Portfolio President, MGM Resorts 
  International..................................................    10
    Prepared statement...........................................    12
Tori Emerson Barnes, Executive Vice President, Public Affairs and 
  Policy, U.S. Travel Association................................    13
    Prepared statement...........................................    15
Carol B. Dover, President and CEO, Florida Restaurant and Lodging 
  Association....................................................    19
    Prepared statement...........................................    20

                                Appendix

Prepared Statement of the Travel Management Coalition............    43
Response to written questions submitted to Steve Hill by:
    Hon. Jacky Rosen.............................................    44
    Hon. Dan Sullivan............................................    46
Response to written questions submitted to Jorge Perez by:
    Hon. Jacky Rosen.............................................    46
    Hon. Dan Sullivan............................................    47
Response to written question submitted to Tori Emerson Barnes by:
    Hon. Dan Sullivan............................................    48
Response to written question submitted to Carol B. Dover by:
    Hon. Dan Sullivan............................................    49

 
              THE STATE OF TRAVEL AND TOURISM DURING COVID

                              ----------                              


                        TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 2021

                               U.S. Senate,
        Subcommittee on Tourism, Trade, and Export 
                                         Promotion,
        Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 3:06 p.m., in 
room SR-253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Jacky Rosen, 
Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding.
    Present: Senators Rosen [presiding], Klobuchar, Cantwell, 
Tester, Cortez Masto, Sinema, Hickenlooper, Scott, Wicker, 
Sullivan, Blackburn, and Capito.

            OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JACKY ROSEN, 
                    U.S. SENATOR FROM NEVADA

    Senator Rosen. The inaugural hearings of the newly formed 
Subcommittee on Tourism, Trade, and Export Promotion. I would 
like to thank Senator Rick Scott, the Ranking Member of the 
Subcommittee, for agreeing to work with me in a bipartisan way 
on the critical issues that are so important to workers, 
businesses, and families in both of our states and across the 
country. And I look forward to a productive partnership.
    I would also like to thank Chair Cantwell and Ranking 
Member Wicker for their tremendous leadership and for agreeing 
to establish this crucial subcommittee at a time when travel, 
tourism, and hospitality, they need more support than ever 
before. Travel and tourism related industries drive job 
creation and economic growth in states across America, 
especially in Nevada. These industries and the workers they 
employ are absolutely essential to our state's prosperity.
    From the excitement and energy of the Las Vegas Strip, the 
exquisite outdoor recreation opportunities at Lake Tahoe, to 
the magnificent engineering feat that is the Hoover Dam, and 
the vast and pristine public lands throughout our state, people 
love to visit Nevada. Prior to the pandemic, in 2019 about 55 
million people visited the Silver State, which was a record 
setting figure. In the Las Vegas area alone, direct visitor 
spending reached almost $37 billion, directly supported more 
than 242,000 workers in the tourism, leisure, and hospitality 
industries. Jobs in those sectors account for about 9 percent 
of all U.S. jobs, a major slice of the Nation's economy, and in 
Nevada, they employ about a quarter of our workforce.
    With tourism as our lifeblood, this pandemic has hit Nevada 
particularly hard. It brought our travel and tourism-heavy 
economy screeching to a halt and decimated the jobs that these 
industries support. In April 2020, the unemployment rate in 
Nevada was the highest in our state's history and the worst in 
the Nation, it skyrocketed to almost 30 percent. I want to 
repeat that, 30 percent unemployment. They were unemployed 
through no fault of their own. It was all because of the COVID-
19 pandemic, and that contributed to the worst economic 
downturn in the tourism industry we have ever experienced in my 
State of Nevada.
    Through PPP loans, the Employee Retention Tax Credit, 
direct aid to restaurants and live entertainment, and 
unemployment relief, Congress has worked to support tourism 
businesses and workers during this difficult period. But far 
more needs to be done. Now it is time to bring this critical 
industry back to its thriving pre-pandemic economic status. I 
intend to use this subcommittee to find bipartisan pathways and 
solutions to do just that. We are going to get Americans and 
the world traveling again. Today's inaugural hearing, titled 
The State of Travel and Tourism During COVID, will examine the 
economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the travel and 
tourism industry, with a particular focus on hotels, 
conventions, and the broader hospitality industry. We will 
discuss regional impacts of the pandemic on tourism heavy 
economies like Nevada's and Florida's and those communities 
disproportionately affected by economic downturn as a result of 
COVID-19.
    Here today, both virtually and in person, we have a panel 
of wonderful witnesses to share their expertise, provide 
insight and recommendations, and take questions from members of 
the Subcommittee. We will hear from witnesses representing the 
Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, MGM Resorts 
International, U.S. Travel Association, and the Florida 
Restaurant and Lodging Association. From this hearing, I hope 
the Subcommittee will gain a robust understanding of the 
current needs of our Nation's travel and tourism industry so 
that we can craft the most effective and targeted solutions to 
revive our economy and support the travel and tourism work 
force. Travel and tourism industry has many components.
    So while the focus of today is primarily hotels, 
conventions, and the broader hospitality industry from 
restaurants to casinos, Ranking Member Scott and I will ensure 
this subcommittee hears from key stakeholders across the board. 
Over the next few months, we will hear from our airports and 
others about the pandemic's impacts on international travel. We 
will examine the outdoor recreation economy and eco-tourism. We 
will raise the voices of small businesses, hospitality workers, 
and the live entertainment work force. And we will chart a path 
toward the future.
    Thank you all again for being here today. I look forward to 
hearing each of you share your experiences and expertise with 
us. Now I will turn it over to Ranking Member Scott for his 
opening statement and to introduce our witnesses so they can 
provide testimony to the panel. Senator Scott.

                 STATEMENT OF HON. RICK SCOTT, 
                   U.S. SENATOR FROM FLORIDA

    Senator Scott. Well, first I want to thank Chair Rosen. We 
both come from tourism states and we know the importance of 
making sure that we have robust tourism. I remember being at, I 
think it is supposed to be the largest tourism convention or 
event supposedly in the world down in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 
and Las Vegas had an unbelievably beautiful space there and 
they presented Nevada really well. So it is a great state, and 
it is a great place to take a vacation. I want to thank all of 
our witnesses for being here today and sharing their 
experiences. I would like to thank somebody from Florida, Carol 
Dover, who is the President and CEO of the Florida Restaurant 
and Lodging Association for being with us today.
    I finished--a couple of years ago as Governor of Florida 
and I worked hand in hand with Carol. Tourism is a big deal in 
our state, and she is truly a champion for our tourism industry 
in our state. I want to thank Chair Cantwell and Ranking Member 
Wicker for giving us the opportunity to do this. It is an honor 
to lead this subcommittee with Senator Rosen. I look forward to 
the important work we are going to do to drive our Nation's 
tourism and trade sectors to economic success. And as you heard 
from Chair Rosen, some of our States have really gotten hurt 
because of what has happened with the pandemic. During my time 
as Governor, we put--we invested actually quite a bit of State 
money and worked on growing tourism. We went from about 80 
million tourists a year to my last year 126 million tourists.
    But of course, last year, the State of Florida's tourism, 
like all other states, was down significantly. We shed records, 
tourism records, and it creates a lot of jobs. And these 
visitors, they support our small businesses, they field our job 
growth, they help increase our State and local investments in 
the environment and transportation and public safety and 
education. Always said, what happens in Florida is people come 
to visit, and I am sure the same thing happens in Nevada, 
people come to visit, say this is a pretty nice place, I think 
I will move here. I will build my business here. So it is a 
real driver for economic development I think in both of our 
states.
    Our State also has 15 seaports, and it is the gateway to 
Latin America. Florida has become a hub for businesses all 
across the Nation for import and export. We try to move all the 
business we can out of California over to Florida. So goods 
that flow through Florida airports and seaports have grown to 
$154 billion a year due to our focus on building international 
trade relationships. We--in 2016 exports from Florida supported 
an estimated 232,000 American jobs. So these are--the tourism 
is big jobs, the trade jobs are big jobs with our ports. We 
invested in my eight years about $1.4 billion just in our 
ports. I know that all of this--the pandemic has impacted every 
one of us, our families, and all of us have tried to figure out 
how to deal with this, keep everybody safe, our family safe, 
our businesses safe, and our employees safe. I have heard from 
a lot of small businesses around my State that rely on the 
tourism industry and have been absolutely devastated by the 
pandemic.
    While I am glad Florida is open for business, our 
businesses are open, our schools are open, the uncertainty of 
when the tourism industry will reopen in other States in 
communities across the country has clearly impacted those 
States and it has even impacted us. I know everybody is working 
incredibly hard to keep their businesses going and get back in 
business and be able to employ everybody again, and I hope that 
happens quickly. As our Nation works to recover from the 
coronavirus and get our economy back on track, I am going to do 
everything I can with Senator Rosen to support the tourism 
industry in Florida and across the country.
    I am also very focused on what happens in Puerto Rico. You 
know, Puerto Rico is devastated by Hurricane Maria and then 
they had the earthquake and now COVID-19. We worked hard to 
make sure there is good aid for Puerto Rico's recovery. I have 
been working on a lot of bills like Senator Rosen has. I have 
my bipartisan Fly Safe K-9 COVID Detection Act with Senator 
Sinema, which directs the TSA to conduct a feasibility study on 
the use of K-9 units, which have been reportedly effective in 
detecting COVID and hopefully will provide an opportunity to 
make people feel safer flying.
    We have got to get people back in the air for all of our 
states. We also have a bipartisan bill Fly Safe and Healthy Act 
with Chair Cantwell to enable a temperature check pilot program 
at airports. And today I introduce the Careful Resumption Under 
Improved Safety Enhancement Act or the CRUISE Act with Senator 
Sullivan and Senator Rubio to help our cruise industry restart 
and support the many businesses in our communities that rely on 
the success of the cruise industry. I guess you don't have a 
lot of cruises, but you have a lot of people----
    [Laughter.].
    Senator Rosen. They cruise up and down the Las Vegas strip.
    Senator Scott. That is right. And you have got a lot of 
water people where people cruise on. So our--it has been really 
frustrating. Now, the cruise industry has been waiting for 
months for updated guidance from the CDC and I think it is 
wrong what has happened. They have got to--we have got to give 
the cruise industry the terms, the rules, and they will reopen 
safely. I know that industry wants to do it safely. It is an 
important job created for us.
    So I want to make sure that happens. We are going to do 
everything we can. And I look forward to working with all my 
colleagues to grow tourism, not just in Nevada, not just in 
Florida, but even in states, beautiful States like Mississippi.
    Senator Rosen. Now, thank you, Senator Scott, and I would 
like to now introduce here in person our Ranking Member. 
Senator Wicker.

                STATEMENT OF HON. ROGER WICKER, 
                 U.S. SENATOR FROM MISSISSIPPI

    Senator Wicker. Thank you, Senator Rosen, Senator Scott. 
And Senator Scott, I share that sentiment with you because we 
have a number of tourism opportunities, not the least of which 
is the National Civil Rights Trail and the National Blues 
Trail, which more and more people are coming to visit, as well 
as our other more traditional tourism sites. But thank you both 
for holding this hearing today to hear industry perspectives on 
the state of the travel and tourism industry. This is a great 
topic for the new Tourism, Trade, and Export Promotion 
Subcommittee.
    I expect this committee will be a very busy and I look 
forward to participating. The travel and tourism industry is a 
key pillar of the American economy. Before the COVID-19 
pandemic, this industry supported roughly 16 million jobs and 
generated $1.1 trillion in consumer spending, accounting for 
over $2.5 trillion in total economic output. COVID-19 has 
devastated the industry, perhaps more than any other economic 
sector in the United States. Nearly 40 percent of the total 
U.S. jobs lost during the pandemic have been in leisure and 
hospitality employment. During the worst point of this crisis, 
unemployment in the travel and tourism industry reached over 50 
percent, more than double the National unemployment rate at the 
height of the Great Depression.
    Congress has sought to provide much needed support to help 
the industry recover. The CARES Act provided urgently needed 
relief to travel and tourism businesses in the form of grants, 
emergency loans, and lines of credit. The fifth COVID relief 
bill, which passed in December as part of the Fiscal Year 2021 
Appropriations Act, expanded the industry's access to many of 
these CARES Act relief programs.
    More recently, the American Rescue Plan Act provided $750 
million for the Economic Development Administration to help 
communities impacted by the loss of travel and tourism. 
Additionally, the bill included a $28.6 billion restaurant 
revitalization fund for restaurants modeled after the 
bipartisan Restaurants Act, which I drafted with my friend, 
Senator Sinema, a member of this subcommittee. The Small 
Business Administration has been tasked with standing up the 
restaurant fund, and the SBA may start allocating grants very, 
very soon.
    Federal resources should help shore up the travel and 
tourism sector, but I recognize the impacts of the pandemic 
will be long lasting. I hope our witnesses today will update 
the Committee on the current status of the travel and tourism 
industry, how the increasing availability of COVID-19 vaccines 
affects opportunities for recovery, and ways the public and 
private sectors can partner to help restore demand for travel 
as the public health situation improves--continues to improve.
    It may take years to restore travel and tourism to its pre-
pandemic levels, but I hope not. I am hopeful that this 
subcommittee can identify bipartisan opportunities to help the 
sector heal and prosper much sooner than that. Thank you, Madam 
Chair.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Wicker. And I 
appreciate you being Chairman, Chairman and Ranking Member. 
Right now, I would like to welcome via WebEx, Senator Cortez 
Masto. She is my partner in representing Nevada in the Senate. 
She is a tireless advocate for travel and tourism industry. And 
I would like to welcome her to introduce to the Subcommittee 
our witness from Las Vegas. Senator Cortez Masto, I turn it to 
you to introduce Mr. Hill.

           STATEMENT OF HON. CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, 
                    U.S. SENATOR FROM NEVADA

    Senator Cortez Masto. Chair Rosen, thank you so much. 
Ranking Member Scott, I really appreciate the opportunity to 
join you today. It is great to be back in the Commerce 
Committee that I enjoyed serving on when I first came to the 
Senate. This committee does great work promoting our science, 
transportation, technology sectors and gives Congress the 
ability to hold hearings on important sectors like this one on 
tourism. As you know and as you have stated, tourism is vital 
to the economic health of our country.
    I so appreciate you bringing these experts to talk about 
the importance of the travel industry to Nevada and to the 
Nation as a whole. All of these participants are great partners 
and leaders in the travel industry, which has been so hard hit 
by the COVID-19 pandemic. And our tourism economy will need our 
full support as the Nation recovers. That is why I have been 
working in a bipartisan way on the Hospitality Congress Job 
Recovery Act with Senator Cramer, along with a bipartisan Step 
Act with Senators Blunt and Klobuchar, and the Travel Act that 
I am about to introduce to help elevate tourism at the 
Department of Transportation.
    With that, I appreciate the chance to be here and introduce 
Steve Hill. Steve has been an economic champion in Nevada for 
many years. Since being named the CEO and President of the Las 
Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority in 2018, Steve has done 
a great job of creating more opportunities for Southern Nevada 
to be an even more inviting place for our visitors every year. 
From completion of the Convention Center expansion, to the 
innovative people mover system, and now weathering this health 
and economic crisis, Steve has been a solid and steady hand in 
working to bring us out of this critical challenge to our state 
and local economy.
    I appreciate his partnership on many of the legislative 
efforts that we have worked on as a Nevada delegation. And 
again, I appreciate the Committee bringing his expertise in for 
this hearing today. Thank you.

     STATEMENT OF STEVE HILL, CEO AND PRESIDENT, LAS VEGAS 
               CONVENTION AND VISITORS AUTHORITY

    Mr. Hill. Thank you, Senator Cortez Masto. That was a very 
kind introduction. And thank you, Chair Rosen, Ranking Member 
Scott, for inviting me to be here today. I don't know if it is 
appropriate to congratulate you on the formation of this 
subcommittee, but it seems like the right thing to do. And so I 
would like to congratulate you and also add the appreciation of 
our industry for doing so. We have great supporters, and 
Senator Cortez Masto and Senator Rosen, I know they represent 
Nevada well in our tourism industry.
    Well, in the Senate, we have really appreciated being able 
to work with them on much of the legislation that they 
sponsored on behalf of the travel industry, so thank you very 
much. And I am going to emphasize really some of the things 
that you have already said. Our industry is central to the U.S. 
economy. It is a big part of the U.S. economy, and it is 
critical to the recovery of the U.S. economy. As you mentioned, 
the full strength our industry supports 16 million jobs in the 
United States, one in every nine jobs. It is one of the seventh 
largest industries in the country, and it was certainly the 
industry most affected by the pandemic.
    When our industry is suffering, it's large enough, it has a 
big enough impact that it is felt throughout all of our 
communities. It affects all of our suppliers and service 
providers. And that is from those that you think of initially 
from restaurants and local attractions, but also the cab 
drivers and laundries and the construction workers who set up 
trade shows. The list goes on. Tourism is a significant driver 
in every state, but this is particularly true in Nevada, where 
as Senator Rosen mentioned hospitality supports one in four 
Nevada jobs, two and a half times the National average. The Las 
Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is a unique 
organization in that we are the only entity in a major city in 
the United States to serve as both the destination marketing 
organization as well as the Convention and Visitors Bureau. As 
with many convention centers throughout the country, our 
mission certainly expanded over the last year, and it includes 
doing what we could to help the community respond to the 
pandemic.
    We are the state's largest COVID test center. We are 
currently the state's largest vaccine site. We are a FEMA 
distribution center. We provided space for courtrooms, for 
addiction assistance. We have space and the community needed 
space, and we were happy and proud to be a part of all of those 
efforts. We recently purchased the Las Vegas monorail system 
after it was forced to close due to the pandemic. We needed to 
preserve this important transportation system. And through the 
last year, we finished the construction of our 1.4 million 
square foot expansion, and you may have seen last week 
showcased on the first commercial application of Elon Musk, the 
Boeing Company's innovative transportation system, which now 
runs underneath the campus of our convention center. We are 
here looking forward to both recovery and return to prosperity, 
and we do hope to be able to speed that up. People in this 
industry need that. They need their jobs back.
    Our State and local Governments need this industry to 
recover to generate the tax revenue they count on, to provide 
services. Our customers need to travel, frankly. They need to 
see their family and friends they haven't seen in the last 
year. They need to meet a potential new customer, to experience 
a new culture, or frankly, just to set aside what has happened 
over the last year and get away for a few days. The first step, 
part of the recovery, as you all mentioned, will be moving 
beyond the health crisis and continuing the vaccination process 
is the key to making that happen. We need to get to the point 
now where social distancing is no longer necessary.
    Like many destinations, Las Vegas doesn't work well without 
a crowd. And we are optimistic that we are on the cusp of that. 
We think that it has the ability to happen soon. But once 
beyond the health crisis, our industry will be faced with a 
situation that is roughly equivalent to the depths of the Great 
Recession. That will be where we are once we get past the 
health crisis and are just simply dealing with the economic 
fallout as a result. Domestic and leisure travel will recover 
first, and it is already doing so. We are seeing strength 
there. But business travel and international travel will 
certainly take longer. The LVCVA receives a good portion of our 
funding through a fixed percentage of room tax, and it is a 
good indicator of the health of our tourism and hospitality 
industry. Typically, we would receive about $300 million a 
year. In our current Fiscal Year, which ends in June, we will 
receive about $100 million. So about a third of our normal 
revenue. We are projecting next year that we will receive about 
70 percent of our normal room tax revenue. So we will show 
improvement, but it is only about halfway to where we need to 
be over the next 12 months.
    Because the LVCVA is involved in a number of ways--I will 
just mentioned the transportation and transportation 
infrastructure in all forms will be a key to recovering fully 
and having real growth from there. I was honored to serve on 
the National Advisory Committee on Travel and Tourism 
Infrastructure 2 years ago. The report we issued then was 
relatively brief and contained a focused set of 
recommendations. The key recommendation was to create a 
National travel infrastructure strategy. We have a National 
freight plan, but we do not have a full National travel plan. 
Corridors of regional significance need to be a focus of that 
strategy. In the West and in Nevada, our state I-15 is one such 
corridor that affects states, that runs directly through from 
California to Montana, as well as neighboring states such as 
Wyoming and Colorado. And the importance of that corridor can 
be seen in the makeup of this committee, where half of this 
committee represents states affected by I-15.
    So we look forward to working with you, Senator Rosen, on 
the formation of an I-15 caucus in Congress, and we thank you 
for your help with that. And again, I would like to thank you, 
Ranking Member Scott, all the members of the Committee for the 
opportunity to be before you here today. Thank you for all you 
have done and all you will do for the travel industry.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Hill follows:]

    Prepared Statement of Steve Hill, CEO and President, Las Vegas 
                   Convention and Visitors Authority
    Thank you, Chairwoman Rosen and Ranking Member Scott for inviting 
me before the subcommittee today to speak on the impact of the COVID-19 
pandemic on travel and tourism. I also want to thank Chairwoman 
Cantwell and Ranking Member Wicker of the full committee. 
Congratulations on the formation of this subcommittee. The additional 
spotlight on the tourism industry is acutely needed right now; we 
appreciate your efforts to bring our issues to the forefront.
    Our industry is central to the U.S. economy; in 2019, domestic and 
international travelers spent $1.1 Trillion which equates to 3 percent 
of the U.S. GDP and supported approximately 15.8 Million jobs \1\. 
While every economic sector was affected to some degree by the COVID-19 
pandemic, the health and safety measures required to battle the spread 
of the virus, brought our industry to a virtual standstill with a 42 
percent decline in U.S. economic output and a 34 percent reduction in 
jobs \2\.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ US Travel Association
    \2\ US Travel Association
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    This industry is a significant economic driver of Las Vegas, its 
surrounding communities and the State of Nevada. The Las Vegas 
Convention and Visitors Authority acts as an economic engine for the 
region; our mission is to promote Las Vegas as a premier destination 
for both business and leisure travelers; delivering both visitors and 
economic prosperity for the region. We create iconic global campaigns 
that deliver on our brand promise, growing and sustaining tourism.
    As the only Destination Marketing Organization in the Nation that 
owns a convention center, we have a unique perspective as both 
promoter, and stakeholder of the travel and tourism economy. We are the 
proud owner of the largest column-free convention space in the world, 
as the LVCVA has 4.6 Million square feet of convention space that is 
the home to the Consumer Electronics Show, World of Concrete, Mecum 
Auto Auctions and more. In a nonpandemic year, we average roughly 60 
conventions and 20 special events with a combined total of over 6.5 
Million convention attendees.
    In order to both serve the region and position the destination as a 
global leader, we have focused on innovation to help us develop more 
efficient and sustainable travel infrastructure for both visitors and 
the workforce who call Las Vegas home.
    We recently acquired the region's only monorail system which serves 
as a quick and safe public transportation option for visitors and area 
residents to travel between key Las Vegas destinations. Additionally, 
we partnered with The Boring Company to create the Las Vegas Convention 
Center Loop which will allow our conventiongoers to navigate our large 
convention center campus through a revolutionary underground 
transportation system when it opens in less than a month.
    While we have worked hard not to slow down our innovation agenda, 
the COVID-19 pandemic hit tourism the hardest and Las Vegas, harder 
still. Our identity as a world-renowned tourism destination, and the 
thousands of regional jobs that support it, were jeopardized as Las 
Vegas dimmed its lights to keep not only our residents safe, but 
contribute to the global effort to combat COVID-19. In 2020, visitor 
volume plummeted by 45 percent or to 19 Million, compared to over 42 
Million visitors in 2019 \3\. Revenue for our organization, which is 
driven by visitors is down 70 percent, and tourism revenue for the 
region is down by over 50 percent, and for the state of Nevada, 25 
percent \4\.
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    \3\ LVCVA Research Center
    \4\ LVCVA Research Center
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The resulting economic downturn, as inevitable as it was necessary, 
placed Nevada once again at the forefront of an unemployment crisis for 
the second time in a generation. As I speak, it remains one of the 
highest unemployment figures in the nation, at around 8 percent down 
from a peak of 13 percent in the depths of the pandemic \5\. The 
effects were felt even more acutely in Las Vegas, which peaked at 
almost 15 percent and hovers now at 10 percent \6\. The LVCVA itself 
has had to furlough 49 percent and layoff 20 percent of our workforce 
in order to survive the pandemic related downturn. Although we were 
financially challenged, we maintained our commitment to our workforce 
and community, providing health insurance for our furloughed staff and 
serving as a COVID-19 testing site, administering over 85,000 tests in 
10 months.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \5\ US Bureau of Labor Statistics
    \6\ US Bureau of Labor Statistics
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In order to recover, Las Vegas needs to fully reopen. In order to 
reopen, several factors must take place.
    First--vaccine penetration must become widespread. Our Convention 
Center is a vaccine distribution location, administering over 150,000 
vaccines to date. Clark County has administered over one million 
vaccines and the state of Nevada is coming along with 34 percent 
vaccine penetration for our population. We are optimistic those numbers 
will quickly improve as Nevada moved early to offer doses to all adults 
16 and older.
    In addition to vaccines, the U.S. needs to open international 
travel. Las Vegas relies on international visitors to deliver a 
significant percentage of our tourism revenue. Initiatives like 
replacing quarantine rules with streamlined and uniform testing rules 
would ensure visitors are healthy and remove the onerous and often 
unenforceable burden of isolation that many now experience.
    Finally, implementing new safety protocols will allow our 
businesses to stay open in the event of future health concerns. 
Chairwoman Rosen is leading the effort in the Senate to help small 
businesses meet the challenge of updating safety infrastructure through 
the FRESH Air Act, which incents the installation of new air filtration 
systems which can help reduce the spread of viruses such as COVID-19. 
We thank you, Madam Chairwoman for your leadership on this issue.
    The LVCVA has taken several steps to improve air filtration and 
ventilation throughout the convention center campus such as increasing 
total airflow supply and the percentage of circulated outdoor air, per 
CDC recommendations. We were recently awarded the Global Biorisk 
Advisory Council, GBAC-STAR facility accreditation from the Worldwide 
Cleaning Industry Association. This is the gold standard for safe 
facilities and ensures we have gone above and beyond to address visitor 
and employee safety aligned with not only state and local directives, 
but with emerging global standards.
    As we reopen Las Vegas and our Nation to leisure and business 
travel, the LVCVA intends to continue on its path to innovate the 
travel experience in Las Vegas for the benefit of our visitors, our 
environment and our workforce.
    As the pandemic and its lingering effects change the way Americans 
travel, we expect more vehicular traffic coming in and out of the Las 
Vegas area. I-15, stretching from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and north to 
Salt Lake City, is already one of the most heavily trafficked stretches 
of highway in the Nation and was identified by the U.S. Department of 
Transportation as one of the Nation's ``Corridors of the Future.'' The 
congestion issues along I-15 not only create delays and safety 
challenges for travelers and freight, but also degrades air quality 
throughout the region.
    To focus regional attention on this vital economic corridor, we are 
working with Members of Congress to form a Congressional I-15 Caucus 
and we thank you Chairwoman, for working to make this Caucus a reality 
in the Senate. We look forward to partnering to find modern solutions 
to support the vitality of the corridor.
    Additionally, as we look ahead, we are partnering with our regional 
transportation authorities, the Nevada Department of Transportation, 
the Southern Nevada Regional Transportation Commission and the Nevada 
Governor's Office of Economic Development to develop a regional 
infrastructure plan that connects tourism and visitor traffic to the 
overall picture of travel in the area.
    We are proud of the role Las Vegas played in keeping Americans and 
Nevadans safe over the past year, but it was not without significant 
sacrifice on the part of the tourism workforce--the lifeblood of our 
community.
    As we have in the past, we will recover. Again, I thank you for 
inviting me today, and I am happy to take any questions you may have.

    Senator Rosen. Next is Jorge Perez, Regional Portfolio 
President at MGM Resorts International. Mr. Perez oversees the 
strategic direction for eight of MGM's Resorts properties. Mr. 
Perez is an industry veteran with 25 years of experience in the 
hospitality industry. Mr. Perez, I recognize you for your 
opening remarks.

  STATEMENT OF JORGE PEREZ, REGIONAL PORTFOLIO PRESIDENT, MGM 
                     RESORTS INTERNATIONAL

    Mr. Perez. Good afternoon. Thank you, Chairwoman Rosen, 
Chairwoman Cantwell, Ranking Member Scott, and Ranking Member 
Wicker, and members of the Subcommittee. As you mentioned, my 
name is Jorge Perez. I am the Regional Portfolio President. I 
oversee the eight regional domestic properties for MGM Resorts 
outside of Las Vegas. And I appreciate the opportunity to 
provide testimony on behalf of our organization and to share 
some of our experiences during this incredibly challenging 
year. MGM Resorts International is a global entertainment 
company with 29 unique hotels and gaming destinations across 
eight States and Macao. Last year was one of the most difficult 
years ever faced by our industry, our company, and by our 
employees.
    MGM first felt the impacts of the pandemic at our 
properties in Macao, which closed in February 2020, and shortly 
thereafter in March 2020, our regional properties were closed 
and then eventually our Las Vegas properties, leaving the strip 
closed for the very first time in its history. Like many, we 
face a number of difficult decisions, including having to 
furlough a significant portion of our work force. But during 
this time of great hardship, our company and team members 
sought ways to demonstrate care and compassion for one another, 
and for the most impacted in our communities. We provided 
extended health benefits for our employees and their families. 
We dispersed over $15.5 million to help employees during the 
pandemic via our employee emergency grant fund. And within days 
of shutting down, we donated hundreds of thousands of meals to 
people in need.
    MGM also helped to procure much needed PPE for medical 
professionals, including masks, gowns, and gloves. We continue 
to focus on our commitment to the communities that have 
welcomed us, to give generously to our neighbors and embody our 
core values, embracing humanity every day. While it has been a 
year of hardship, it has also been a year of innovation and 
change. When we reopened our properties, we drastically 
overhauled our operations.
    MGM implemented comprehensive protocols via our seven point 
health and safety plan, which included installation of 
plexiglass dividers, handwashing stations across our resorts, 
digital innovations, including touchless menus in restaurants 
and our bars, the ability for our guests to check-in utilizing 
a mobile phone, enhanced HVAC protocols, temperature testing 
for team members and our guests, and on-site rapid COVID-19 
test for our events, just to name a few.
    As the world strives to return to normal, we appreciate the 
continued leadership and support of the Federal Government. The 
coronavirus relief bills passed by Congress helped so many 
around the country, our furloughed employees with extended 
unemployment benefits, our small business partners through the 
Paycheck Protection Program, and MGM through the Employee 
Retention Tax Credit, which helped provide extended health 
benefits for employees and their families. Notwithstanding 
these efforts, the country's travel and tourism industries and 
our workers have been hit disproportionately hard. Nationwide, 
as mentioned earlier, travel spending was down $500 billion, 
costing the U.S. economy about $1.1 trillion.
    At the current pace, the travel industry is not expected to 
fully recover until 2025, but we are hopeful the recovery will 
arrive much sooner. There are key political initiatives that 
can help our industry achieve a speedy recovery and the nearly 
16 million American workers that it employed before the 
pandemic. One of the biggest policy priorities for the 
traveling tourism industry is the bipartisan legislation 
introduced by Senator Catherine Cortez Masto and Senator Kevin 
Cramer, the Hospitality and Commerce Job Recovery Act of 2021, 
which provides various tax credits to stimulate our industry.
    Additionally, it would assist the convention and trade show 
sector, which was disproportionately impacted and is so crucial 
to the industry's recovery. We also welcome the safe and 
science-based easing of Government restrictions, which will 
permit us to bring back more of our world renowned amenities to 
a greater number of guests, allowing us to bring back more of 
our employees. At MGM, we understand the need to remain 
diligent and maintain our focus on the well-being of our 
employees and our guests. Vaccination is a critically important 
tool in helping to end a pandemic and accelerate our 
community's economic recovery.
    We are committed to doing anything we can to help get as 
many people vaccinated as quickly as possible by removing 
barriers to access and bringing vaccination clinics directly to 
our employees. It has been a difficult year, but there is great 
reason for cautious optimism, and we are starting to see signs 
of recovery. We at MGM Resorts await the ability to welcome and 
entertain the world without restriction, and to help our guests 
celebrate life to its fullest. Thank you for the opportunity to 
present testimony today.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Perez follows:]

   Prepared Statement of Jorge Perez, Regional Portfolio President, 
                       MGM Resorts International
    Chairwoman Rosen, Ranking Member Scott, and Members of the 
Subcommittee:

    My name is Jorge Perez and I am the Regional Portfolio President 
for MGM Resorts International. I appreciate the opportunity to provide 
testimony on behalf of MGM Resorts and our experience during the past 
year as the country and the world has been ravaged by the coronavirus 
pandemic.
    MGM Resorts International is a global entertainment company with 29 
unique hotel and gaming destinations across eight states domestically 
and Macau. Last year was one of the most difficult years ever faced by 
our industry, company, and employees. The coronavirus has created a 
worldwide crisis, a disruption and uncertainty at a scale that would 
have been unimaginable before 2020.
    MGM Resorts first felt the impacts of the pandemic at our 
properties in Macau, which closed on February 5, 2020. In March of 
2020, each of our regional properties closed. And those shutdowns were 
followed by Las Vegas--with the Las Vegas Strip going dark for the 
first time in its history. Our properties in Las Vegas and regionally 
were closed for months. Like many, MGM Resorts faced a number of 
difficult decisions, including widespread furloughs and workforce 
reductions. We furloughed as many as 60,000 members of our team.
    During this time of great hardship, MGM Resorts and our team 
members sought ways to demonstrate great care and compassion for one 
another and for those most impacted in our communities.
    MGM Resorts provided extended health benefits for tens of thousands 
of employees and their families. Our MGM Resorts Foundation Employee 
Emergency Grant Program disbursed over $15.5 million to help employees 
pay for financial difficulties faced during the pandemic, covering over 
21,000 bill payments. Thanks to the tenacity of our chefs and our long-
standing community partnerships, within days of shutting down, MGM 
Resorts donated more than 662,000 pounds of food--or 552,000 meals-to 
various community organizations.
    We also worked to help with the significant shortage of personal 
protective equipment (PPE) for our medical professionals. MGM Resorts 
leveraged our supply chain, procurement capabilities, and other 
resources to provide urgent logistical support to manage supply 
shortages. Through our colleagues in Macau, we procured and delivered 
261,000 gowns, 200,000 gloves, and 500,000 KN-95 masks in Nevada. We 
continue to focus on our commitment to the communities that have 
welcomed us, to give generously to our neighbors, and embodying our 
core value of embracing humanity every day.
    Due to the pandemic, families and friends were unable to get 
together. Your committee, and others, have needed to adjust how you 
work and we are here today, joining each other virtually. Just as the 
Nation and the world, and this committee, has had to adjust their way 
of living, MGM Resorts has had to adjust our way of conducting 
business.
    While it has been a year of hardship, it has also been a year of 
innovation and change. When we reopened our properties, we overhauled 
our operations drastically. Developed in consultation with scientific, 
medical, and public health experts, we implemented comprehensive health 
and safety protocols, including installing plexiglass dividers and 
handwashing stations throughout our resorts; digital innovations such 
as contactless check-in/check-out and restaurant menus; enhanced HVAC 
protocols; temperature testing for team members and guests; and on-site 
rapid COVID-19 testing for events, just to name a few.
    As the world strives to return to normal, we appreciate the 
continued leadership and support of the Federal government. Coronavirus 
relief bills passed by Congress helped so many around the country--
whether it be our small business partners through the Paycheck 
Protection Program or MGM through the Employee Retention Tax Credit 
(ERTC), which helped us in our efforts to provide extended health care 
benefits to our employees and their families while our properties were 
shuttered.
    Notwithstanding these efforts, the country's travel and tourism 
industries, and our workers, have been hit disproportionally hard. At 
MGM Resorts, our Las Vegas resorts were particularly impacted versus 
our Regional properties as both domestic and international customers 
chose to stay closer to home and their mid-week reliance on the 
Convention and Trade Show sector. Our Regional Resorts experienced a 
slight benefit from the lack of competition in local markets as dining 
and entertainment options were limited.
    Nationwide, travel spending was down $500 billion, costing the U.S. 
economy $1.1 trillion. At the current pace, the travel industry is not 
expected to fully recover until 2025 \1\. We are hopeful that this 
estimate is not accurate, and that recovery will arrive much sooner 
than 2025. There are key policy initiatives that can help the 
industry--and the nearly 16 million American workers it employed before 
the pandemic--achieve a speedier recovery.
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    \1\ U.S. Travel Association
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    One of the biggest policy priorities for the travel and tourism 
industry is the bipartisan legislation introduced by Senator Catherine 
Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), the Hospitality 
and Commerce Job Recovery Act of 2021 which provides individual tax 
credits to stimulate nonbusiness travel, restores the entertainment 
business expense deduction, and would provide tax relief for 
restaurants and food beverage companies. Additionally, it would assist 
the convention and trade show industry, which saw a year-over-year 
decline of 98.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2019 to 2020 \2\. 
The bill would establish a temporary tax credit to support the industry 
by providing tax credits for costs associated with reopening convention 
and trade show facilities, including any renovation, remediation, PPE, 
cleaning, testing, or associated labor costs. We are looking forward to 
welcoming conventions back to our resorts and welcoming them back 
safely.
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    \2\  Center for Exhibition Industry Research
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    We welcome the safe and science-based easing of government 
restrictions, which will permit us to bring back more of our world-
renowned amenities to a greater number of guests, allowing us to bring 
back more employees. At MGM Resorts, we understand the need to remain 
vigilant and maintain our focus on the wellbeing of our employees and 
our guests. Vaccination is a critically important tool in helping to 
end the pandemic and accelerate our community's economic recovery. We 
are committed to doing all that we can to help get as many people 
vaccinated as quickly as possible by removing barriers to access and 
bringing vaccination clinics directly to our employees in Nevada, 
Michigan, and other states where we operate. Throughout our footprint, 
we have worked with local partners to offer vaccinations to our 
employees at no cost.
    It has been a difficult year, but there is great reason for 
cautious optimism. We at MGM Resorts await the ability to welcome and 
entertain the world without restriction and to help our guests 
celebrate and live life to its fullest.
    Thank you for the opportunity to present my testimony.

    Senator Rosen. Thank you, Mr. Perez. Testifying next is 
Tori Emerson Barnes, Executive Vice President of Public Affairs 
and Policy at the U.S. Travel Association. Ms. Barnes leads the 
U.S. Travel Association's Government relations, policy 
development, communications, marketing, and research teams. Ms. 
Barnes is here with us today in person. And I recognize you for 
your opening remarks.

               STATEMENT OF TORI EMERSON BARNES,

            EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, PUBLIC AFFAIRS

              AND POLICY, U.S. TRAVEL ASSOCIATION

    Ms. Barnes. Thank you, Chair Rosen and Ranking Member Scott 
and members of the Subcommittee. Good afternoon. I am Tori 
Emerson Barnes, Executive Vice President of Public Affairs and 
Policy for the U.S. Travel Association. We are the only 
Association that represents all sectors of the travel industry, 
and I am very happy to be here in person and grateful for the 
leadership that you are putting forward here today. Before the 
pandemic, $1.1 trillion in travel spending generated $2.6 
trillion economic impact and supported 16 million American 
jobs. This came to a halt at the onset of the pandemic.
    Last year, travel spending fell 42 percent, costing the 
economy $500 billion in lost travel spend. International 
inbound visitation declined 76 percent and business travel 
spending fell 70 percent. Additionally, 5.6 million travel-
supported jobs were lost, accounting for 65 percent of all jobs 
lost to the pandemic. At the State level, Nevada, Florida, and 
Washington State suffered travel spending declines of more than 
40 percent. Travel spending fell 26 percent in Mississippi. 
Currently, the travel industry is expected to take 5 years to 
recover from this crisis, and that is far too long to wait. 
While we expect domestic leisure travel to recover more 
quickly, a full rebound is not certain, and it won't make up 
for losses in other segments.
    Professional meetings and events, which are the travel 
industry's largest generator of spending revenue, are still 
restricted in many states. This sector is projected to take 4 
years to recover. And with our borders still closed to much of 
the world, international travel to the U.S. will take as many 
as 5 years to return to pre-pandemic levels. With the 
uncertainty around reopening, it could be even longer. U.S. 
Travel has identified four key priorities to restore travel 
demand, accelerate rehiring, and shorten the recovery timeline. 
First, we must safely and quickly reopen international travel. 
We have the right protections in place to safely reopen, but we 
don't have clear public health benchmarks or a definitive 
timeline to return--to open our borders. U.S. Travel has urged 
the Biden Administration to develop, by this May, a roadmap and 
a timeline for lifting entry restrictions with the goal of 
reopening international travel by July.
    We can start by establishing public health corridors 
between the U.S. and other low risk countries such as the 
United Kingdom. Second, the CDC should approve clear guidance 
that states and localities can use to lift restrictions and 
safely restart professional meetings and events. Nearly all 
sectors of the economy have clear guidelines to allow them to 
reopen amid the pandemic. Business meetings are distinct from 
other mass gatherings due to the level of control that can be 
implemented and should not remain closed while the rest of the 
economy is given the green light to reopen. Third, Congress 
should enact the Hospitality and Commerce Jobs Recovery Act to 
spur demand and accelerate rehiring. This bill would increase 
travel demand among low to middle income families by providing 
targeted and temporary refundable tax credits to travel while 
also helping to boost demand, spending and rehiring.
    The bill would also provide refundable tax credits to 
encourage professional meetings and events to restart. Further, 
Oxford Economics estimates that enacting this bill would 
shorten the recovery timeline from 5 years to just three, while 
creating an incremental 1.5 million jobs and generating nearly 
$600 billion in spending. Fourth, Congress should provide 
temporary emergency funding for Brand USA, America's 
destination marketing organization. Over the last 7 years, 
Brand USA's marketing efforts has generated a 26 to 1 return on 
investment for the U.S. economy.
    However, the drastic decline in ESTA fee collections due to 
international travel restrictions, combined with scarce private 
sector contributions during the economic crisis, have decimated 
the program's funding. If Brand USA is unable to continue its 
important work, international travel recovery will be severely 
limited. Specific policies can also be implemented to improve 
the industry's long term competitiveness and ensure that we 
come back stronger than ever. These policies include passing 
the Visit America Act, which Senator Sullivan introduced last 
year to elevate travel leadership in the Federal Government. 
This would strengthen the Commerce Department's role in 
coordinating Federal travel policies and set consistent 
National goals and strategies to boost travel exports.
    Finally, investing in our country's infrastructure will 
help facilitate travel and better prepare us to welcome back 
visitors from around the world. By prioritizing infrastructure 
investments now, the U.S. can emerge from the pandemic and 
rebuild the travel industry with stronger, more connected 
systems than ever before. We need the Federal Government to 
enact the right policies to ensure all sectors of travel can 
recover as quickly as possible.
    And any delay in reopening any segment will only hurt our 
economy further. Thank you again for inviting the travel 
industry to testify today on such a devastating economic impact 
of the pandemic, and I welcome your questions. Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Barnes follows:]

 Prepared Statement of Tori Emerson Barnes, Executive Vice President, 
           Public Affairs and Policy, U.S. Travel Association
    Chairwoman Rosen, Ranking Member Scott, Chairwoman Cantwell, 
Ranking Member Wicker, and members of the subcommittee, good afternoon.
    I'm Tori Emerson Barnes, Executive Vice President of Public Affairs 
and Policy for the U.S. Travel Association. Thank you for inviting the 
travel industry to participate in this critically important hearing.
    U.S. Travel is the only association that represents all sectors of 
the travel industry--airports, airlines, hotels, state and local 
tourism offices, cruise lines, car rental companies, theme parks and 
attractions and many others. All of these sectors of travel are crucial 
to our broader industry's economic revival and should be treated 
equitably as we develop strategies to restart and restore widespread 
travel.
    Before the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, $1.1 trillion in traveler 
spending in the U.S. generated a $2.6 trillion total economic impact 
and supported 15.8 million jobs in 2019.\1\ Travel was the second 
largest industry export and largest service industry export, generating 
a trade surplus of $51 billion.
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    \1\ https://www.ustravel.org/system/files/media_root/document/
Research_Fact-Sheet_US-Tra
vel-Answer-Sheet.pdf
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    This all came to a halt at the onset of the public health crisis. 
As this subcommittee is well aware, travel and tourism is the hardest-
hit industry in the economic fallout of the pandemic. And now we know 
what happens when the world stops moving: Economies and livelihoods are 
decimated. In 2020, travel spending in the U.S. plummeted 42 percent, 
costing the U.S. economy $500 billion in lost travel spending.\2\ Both 
Nevada and Florida suffered travel spending declines of more than 30 
percent. Travel spending tumbled 44 percent in Washington and 22 
percent in Mississippi.\3\
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    \2\ https://www.ustravel.org/system/files/media_root/document/
Research_Fact-Sheet_Indus
try-Table.pdf
    \3\ https://www.ustravel.org/research/travel-recovery-insights-
dashboard?utm_source=Magnet
Mail&utm_medium=e-
mail&utm_content=3%2E25%2E21%20%2D%20COVID%20Research%20
Monthly&utm_campaign=ust
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    These spending declines gutted the travel workforce: 5.6 million 
travel-supported jobs were lost, accounting for 65 percent of all jobs 
lost in the U.S.\4\
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    \4\ https://www.ustravel.org/system/files/media_root/document/
Research_Fact-Sheet_Indus
try-Table.pdf
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    Currently, the travel industry is expected to take five years to 
recover from this crisis; that is far too long to wait. While we expect 
domestic leisure travel to be the segment of our industry that recovers 
the fastest, a rebound is not inevitable. Low-to-middle income families 
have been hardest-hit by the pandemic and research shows they are less 
likely to travel in the next year. Business meetings, conventions and 
events are still severely restricted in many states, and this sector--
which also happens to be the largest revenue generator and job 
creator--is projected to take four years to recover. And, with our 
borders still closed to much of the world, international travel to the 
U.S. will take more than five years to return to pre-pandemic levels--
and with the uncertainty around reopening, it could even longer.
    We must implement the right strategies now to restart widespread 
travel. U.S. Travel has identified four key priorities to restore 
travel demand, accelerate rehiring and shorten the timeline for 
recovery:

  1.  First, we must safely and quickly reopen international travel.

  2.  Second, the CDC should approve clear guidance to safely restart 
        professional meetings and events.

  3.  Third, Congress must enact the Hospitality and Commerce Job 
        Recovery Act to spur incremental demand and accelerate 
        rehiring.

  4.  Fourth, Congress should provide temporary emergency funding for 
        Brand USA to welcome visitors back to the U.S.

    Specific policies can also be implemented to improve the industry's 
long-term competitiveness and ensure we come back stronger and better 
than ever, such as:

  1.  Enact the Visit America Act to establish permanent leadership in 
        Federal government on travel policies.

  2.  Invest in repairing and modernizing travel infrastructure.
Reopen international inbound travel
    First, U.S. Travel has urged the Biden administration to set, by 
this May, a timeline for lifting entry restrictions and reopening 
international travel. If nothing is done to restore international 
travel, a total of 1.1 million American jobs and $262 billion in 
spending will be lost by the end of 2021.\5\
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    \5\ https://www.ustravel.org/sites/default/files/media_root/
International%20reopening%20fact
%20sheet%20data_2021.pdf
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    However, our research shows that if the U.S. can restart 
international travel by the second quarter of this year, it can have a 
dramatic impact on restoring jobs. If international travel from the top 
inbound markets (such as the United Kingdom, Canada and the European 
Union), can reach an average of just 40 percent of 2019 levels by the 
end of 2021, we can restore an additional 225,000 jobs and $30 billion 
in travel exports this year alone.\6\
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    \6\ https://www.ustravel.org/sites/default/files/media_root/
International%20reopening%20fact
%20sheet%20data_2021.pdf
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    Even small steps will go a long way. For example, if the U.S. can 
quickly establish a public health corridor between the U.S. and the 
U.K.--while avoiding quarantines upon arrival--it could add 1.9 million 
arrivals and $4.4 billion in spending in 2021 alone.\7\
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    \7\ https://www.ustravel.org/sites/default/files/media_root/
International%20reopening%20fact
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    The good news is that we can reopen international travel without 
compromising safety. A Harvard study found that the risk of COVID-19 
transmission while flying is already low and the Federal mask mandate 
has made flying even safer.\8\ All inbound international passengers 
must now provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of 
departure, effectively eliminating the need for quarantines. Further, 
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) own guidance 
says that fully vaccinated travelers are less likely to get and spread 
COVID-19.\9\ Finally, the vaccination rate among U.S. adults is growing 
rapidly each day and as we begin to reach a staturation point, 
vaccinated individuals ought to be able to come to the U.S. without 
having to have proof of a negative COVID test.
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    \8\ https://cdn1.sph.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2443/
2020/10/APHI-Phase-I-Press
-Release.pdf
    \9\ https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/ travelers/travel-
during-covid19.html
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    While we have the right protections in place to restart 
international travel and keep our country safe, we do not have clear 
public health benchmarks or a definitive timeline to reopen our 
borders. The CDC, Department of Transportation, Department of Homeland 
Security and other agencies must quickly come together to develop a 
data-driven, risk-based roadmap by May to rescind international inbound 
travel restrictions by July 2021.
    This plan should start by quickly establishing ``public health 
corridors'' between the U.S. and other low-risk countries, like the 
U.K. The CDC should then use clear benchmarks, such as infection and 
vaccination rates, to determine when entry restrictions can be lifted 
for other countries. The development of uniform Federal standards for 
digital health credentials can also facilitate safe travel. While 
vaccines should never be a requirement to travel, digital health 
credentials can verify both test results and vaccination history, 
protect personal privacy, and work across local, state and 
international borders.
    The subcommittee can help impress upon the White House and other 
agencies the urgent need to develop this plan and support them in 
developing it.
Restart professional meetings and events
    Similar to international travel, our industry cannot recover 
without a resumption of professional meetings and events. Business 
travel spending in the U.S. fell 70 percent from $348 billion in 2019 
to just $103 billion in 2020. To put this in real terms, as leisure 
travel businesses and destinations are experiencing slight increases in 
demand, convention hotels remain empty. Restaurants, caterers, event 
organizers and AV companies are without customers. Rental car lots are 
full. Business travel, including professional meetings and events, is 
one of the most lucrative and important segments of travel and it must 
be restored in order to get the industry back on its feet.
    It must be acknowledged that it is possible to resume professional 
meetings and events safely. Professional meetings and events are 
distinct from other mass gatherings due to the level of control that 
can be implemented, and therefore should not be singled out while the 
rest of the economy is given the greenlight to reopen. The CDC should 
provide or approve safety guidance--such as mask wearing, sanitation 
and physical distancing--that states and localities can use to lift 
restrictions on small, medium and large business events. The Federal 
government must embrace the leadership role it can play in helping to 
restart this vital sector of the economy responsible for so many good-
paying jobs.
Enact the Hospitality and Commerce Job Recovery Act
    Simply reopening international and business travel won't be enough 
on its own. Congress can play a direct role in shortening the timeline 
for recovery and quickly restoring jobs in every region of the country.
    In the travel industry, hiring is directly connected to demand. 
When demand for travel increases and customers return, travel 
employment happens immediately. But, as mentioned previously, travel 
demand and employment are forecast to take five years to reach 2019 
levels. However, we can accelerate demand and rehiring by enacting the 
Hospitality and Commerce Job Recovery Act (HCJRA).
    While domestic leisure travel will come back first, the rebound in 
demand will not be equitable. Research by McKinsey shows that low-to-
middle income families, who have been hit hardest by the pandemic, are 
29 percent to 16 percent less likely to travel in 2021 compared to 
high-income families. The HCJRA would focus on increasing travel demand 
among all households by providing targeted and temporary refundable tax 
credits for low-to-middle income families to take a trip, while 
simultaneously helping to boost spending, demand and rehiring.
    The bill would also provide refundable tax credits to encourage the 
resumption of business meetings, conventions and events, and defray the 
costs of hosting these job-generating gatherings.
    Together, with other targeted measures in the bill, Oxford 
Economics estimates that enacting the HCJRA would shorten the recovery 
timeline from five years to just three, while creating an incremental 
1.5 million jobs and generating nearly $600 billion in spending.
Support and protect Brand USA
    Third, we are asking Congress to support $250 million in emergency 
funding for Brand USA, the United States' destination marketing 
organization. Brand USA does the important work of promoting the U.S. 
to international visitors. Over the past seven years, Brand USA's 
marketing efforts have generated 7.5 million incremental visitors to 
the U.S. who spent nearly $25 billion, supporting more than 50,000 
incremental jobs each year.\10\
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    \10\ https://www.thebrandusa.com/media/newsletters/article/brand-
usa-fiscal-year-2019-roi-
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    However, the drastic decline in ESTA fee collections (which fund 
Brand USA, in part) due to international travel restrictions and scarce 
private sector contributions amid the economic crisis has severely 
diminished the program's funding. If Brand USA is unable to continue 
its work of promoting the U.S. once borders reopen, the international 
inbound travel segment's recovery will be severely hampered. We cannot 
restore international travel or compete in the global travel market 
without Brand USA.
Advance the Visit America Act
    Fourth, there are also measures that Congress can enact to make 
America's travel industry stronger and more globally competitive than 
ever before.
    The Visit America Act, which was introduced by Senator Dan Sullivan 
in the last session of Congress, would strengthen the Commerce 
Department's role in coordinating Federal travel policies, set 
consistent national goals to boost travel exports and develop clear 
strategies to achieve them.
    The bill importantly creates the role of Assistant Secretary of 
Commerce for Travel and Tourism, who would be responsible for setting 
an annual goal for the number of international visitors to the U.S., 
providing support for improved visitor visa processing and promoting 
travel exports. Specifically, the bill directs the Department of 
Commerce to develop a 10-year travel and tourism strategy with the goal 
of achieving, by 2028, 116 million annual international visitors to the 
U.S. and $445 billion in travel exports.\11\ The U.S. is the only 
country among the top 30 destinations worldwide that does not have a 
cabinet- or subcabinet-level leadership for travel, putting the U.S. at 
a competitive disadvantage.
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    \11\ https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3831
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    As travel exports declined 64 percent from $234 billion in 2019 to 
just $83 billion in 2020, a Federal strategy to boost travel exports 
will be vital to the travel industry's overall recovery.\12\
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    \12\ https://www.ustravel.org/system/files/media_root/document/
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try-Table.pdf
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Improve America's travel infrastructure
    Lastly, we are urging Congress to prioritize legislation to improve 
America's travel infrastructure to facilitate domestic travel and to 
better prepare to welcome back visitors from around the world.
    Even before the public health crisis, cities and towns were growing 
further apart due to aging, insufficient infrastructure and congested 
roadways. By prioritizing infrastructure investments that enhance the 
economic contributions of travel and improve passenger mobility, the 
U.S. can emerge from the pandemic and rebuild the travel industry with 
stronger, more connected infrastructure systems than ever before.
    This committee has played a leadership role in establishing 
national strategies, networks and programs to improve the mobility of 
freight. It's time to develop and fund the same type of national 
strategies and programs to improve the mobility of people. By ensuring 
discretionary grant and formula programs target investments towards 
projects that improve national travel mobility and achieve the goals of 
the National Travel and Tourism Infrastructure Strategic Plan, this 
committee can help change the way America moves.
Closing
    One thing is clear: there are both challenges and opportunities 
ahead. The travel industry will not recover on its own. Travel has 
suffered more than any other industry throughout this crisis, and we 
need the Federal government to enact the right policies to ensure all 
sectors of travel can recover as quickly as possible. There is a great 
deal at stake, and any delay in restarting widespread travel will only 
hurt the economy further.
    Thank you again for inviting the broader travel industry to testify 
on the devastating economic impact of the pandemic on our industry. We 
look forward to working with you on these solutions to restore this 
crucial economic sector and I welcome your questions. Thank you.

    Senator Rosen. Thank you, Ms. Barnes. Our final witness is 
Carol Dover, President and CEO of the Florida Restaurant and 
Lodging Association. Ms. Dover also serves as a member of 
several boards, including the Board of Directors for the 
National Restaurant Association, Council of State Restaurant 
Associations, and International Society of Hotel Association 
Executives. Ms. Dover, I recognize you via WebEx for your 
opening remarks.

    STATEMENT OF CAROL B. DOVER, PRESIDENT AND CEO, FLORIDA 
               RESTAURANT AND LODGING ASSOCIATION

    Ms. Dover. Thank you, Chair Cantwell, Ranking Member 
Wicker, and subcommittee Chair Rosen and Ranking Member Scott, 
and other distinguished members for the opportunity to be here 
to represent Florida's hospitality industry. For more than 26 
years, I have led the Florida Restaurant and Lodging 
Association, FRLA, which represents over 10,000 members from 
the biggest names in hotels, restaurants, theme parks, to small 
independent operators and suppliers. Hospitality and tourism is 
the largest industry in Florida, and it is the economic engine 
of our state. In 2019, a record setting 131 million visitors 
added nearly $97 billion to Florida's economy. Tourism was 
Florida's largest employer, with over 1.5 million employees.
    Before COVID, our nearly $112 billion hospitality industry 
was booming, with hundreds of new hotels, thousands of new 
restaurants, and we were on track to set new records. When 
COVID hit, we were shell shocked. More than 62 percent of 
Florida's hospitality employees were furloughed or laid off. 
Hotels, restaurants, bars, cruise lines, theme parks shut down, 
air travel stopped, business conferences and large events were 
canceled.
    The FRLA went into overdrive to help our members survive, 
interpreting executive orders and serving as an information 
clearinghouse. We helped our workers get PPE and other COVID 
supplies. We were heavily engaged with our State and Federal 
leaders and are grateful for the support of Senators Scott and 
Rubio. We were blessed to work closely with Governor DeSantis 
by assisting to create guidelines and safety protocols to get 
our industry reopened. There were many creative solutions that 
our industry embarked upon, from opening grocerants, to putting 
up dining tables in parking lots. Alcohol to-go became a 
critical revenue source for restaurants, and we were working 
now with the Florida legislature to try to make that permanent. 
We have worked with our National Association partners on 
Federal relief packages that have been critical to our 
survival.
    Our industry is also facing historic workforce challenges. 
Although we are allowed to operate at 100 percent capacity in 
Florida, we can't find staff. Simply put, we are competing with 
State and Federal unemployment benefits. Workers tell us that 
they make too much money on unemployment to return to work, so 
businesses are forced to limit capacity, shorten their hours 
without adequate staff to serve guests. Florida is open for 
business, but we are desperate for workers. COVID has decimated 
the U.S. tourism industry, which suffered more than $500 
billion in pandemic-related losses. Half of the U.S. hotel 
rooms are projected to remain empty this year, and hotel 
employment will not come back until at least 2023. Business 
travel, the single largest source of hotel revenue, will remain 
down 85 percent and it is going to take years to recover. 
Thousands of hotels have closed and have been foreclosed. 
Florida had the second highest hotel job loss in the Nation 
behind California.
    Restaurants have also been shattered, from Nationwide 
shutdowns to ban on indoor dining to misleading claims about 
the safety of restaurants, 2020 ended with total sales that 
were $240 billion less than projections. Nationally, more than 
8 million restaurant employees were laid off or furloughed, and 
600,000 of them were in Florida. More than 110,000 restaurants 
closed permanently, including over 10,000 of those in Florida. 
Nationally, the restaurant industry lost nearly 2.5 million 
jobs. We are hopeful that PPP, tax credits, and the recently 
passed Restaurant Revitalization Fund have been huge victories. 
The RRF will provide $28.6 billion in grants for restaurants 
who desperately need it.
    Thank you, Ranking Member Wicker and committee member 
Sinema, for your bipartisan work in creating the Restaurant Act 
to keep us open. Travel, tourism, and the hospitality 
industries have faced the worst years in history. In Florida, 
we understand emergencies, but there was no playbook for COVID-
19, and nothing has ever tested us like this. We love creating 
memorable experiences for guests that keep coming back, but we 
need for them to be able to come back. International visitors, 
cruises, business travel, we are working to rebuild this 
industry that we love so dearly. We are hospitality strong, but 
we have no problem asking for your help and we still 
desperately need your support as we rebuild. Thank you, Chair, 
and I will be happy to take any questions that you may have.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Dover follows:]

       Prepared Statement of Carol B. Dover, President and CEO, 
               Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association
    Good afternoon. I want to thank Chair Cantwell and Ranking Member 
Wicker, Subcommittee Chair Rosen, and Ranking Member Scott, as well as 
the many distinguished members of this subcommittee for the opportunity 
to be here today to represent Florida's hospitality industry and 
discuss COVID-19 impacts to travel and tourism. Across the nation, our 
leaders have been challenged with balancing public and economic health 
throughout the pandemic, and the hospitality, travel, and tourism 
industries have been disproportionally affected.
    I have had the honor of leading the Florida Restaurant and Lodging 
Association (FRLA) for 26 years and have spent most of my life in the 
hospitality industry. I am also active on the Board of Directors for 
both the National Restaurant Association and the American Hotel and 
Lodging Association and am eager to discuss the status of our industry 
and what we have been doing in Florida.
    FRLA represents everyone from the biggest brands in theme parks, 
hotels, restaurants, and suppliers, all the way down to small, 
independent restaurants and hotels. We have been working with all of 
them to adapt to new business practices and help their employees since 
the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Throughout my tenure at FRLA, I have watched the growth of the 
hospitality and tourism industry to become the largest one in Florida, 
a top employer, and the economic engine for our state. Travel and 
tourism directly affect the success of our hospitality industry, so it 
is important to share some data from our partners at VISIT FLORIDA on 
the power of tourism in Florida.
    Tourism is Florida's top economic driver. In 2019, a record-setting 
131.4 million visitors added nearly $97 billion to Florida's economy. 
That is more than the entire GDP of 13 other states. Pre-COVID, Florida 
tourism was growing faster than the U.S. economy, consumer spending, 
health care spending, and spending on recreation. Every 81 visitors 
equal one Florida job, and tourism keeps Florida's taxes low. Latest 
data shows that tourism accounted for 13.4 percent or more than $3.22 
billion of total state sales tax collections. Our visitors save every 
Florida household more than $1,500 a year on state and local taxes.
    In the five years prior to COVID, nearly 300 new hotels and more 
than 9,500 new restaurants opened. We were on track to continue to set 
records. Pre-COVID, we were a nearly $112 billion industry with more 
than 1.5 million employees. Florida has so much to offer with our 
beautiful beaches, unparalleled attractions, and the finest hotels and 
restaurants across that nation. Our hotels enjoyed fully booked 
capacities, and our restaurants were full.
    When 2020 began, our industry was projected to have a banner year 
with continued growth, increased tourism, and records sales. Florida is 
one of the top tourism destinations in the world and our visitors have 
a significant impact on hospitality revenues. Pre-COVID, we were a top 
location for convention business, and our travelers and visitors 
accounted for a huge percentage of restaurants sales. Nationally, they 
accounted for about 30 percent of overall restaurant sales: 35 percent 
for full service and 25 percent for limited service.
    As we entered 2020, things were looking good. We had no idea what 
was about to hit us. Our industry experienced a severe and sudden shock 
as we were shutdown. More than 934,000 of our 1.5 million employees 
were almost immediately furloughed or laid off. Businesses including 
restaurants and bars were shut down, air travel stopped, and business 
conferences and large events were cancelled.
    The Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association went into overdrive, 
working around the clock to interpret executive orders for our members, 
advocate for the best possible outcomes for our businesses and workers, 
and get accurate information out as quickly as possible. We engaged 
with our state and Federal leaders. We are grateful to our wonderful 
Senators Scott and Rubio for their support and promotion for the CARES 
Act, PPP, and Federal relief, and we have been blessed to work closely 
with our great Governor, Ron DeSantis, to get our industry re-opened 
and on the road to recovery.
    We fought hard to keep carryout and curbside pick-up and expand 
allowances for outdoor dining. We had restaurants putting up tables 
down sidewalks and in their parking lots. Many opened grocer-aunts to 
sell goods like toilet paper and other supplies, along with pre-
packaged, cook-at-home meals to their guests. Many hotels and 
restaurants had to make very difficult staffing decisions, sometimes 
laying off people who had worked with them for decades--people they 
considered family. And they kept those who they could and employed them 
in any way they could. Managers were cleaning restaurant bathrooms and 
hotel suites, hostesses were making necessary restaurant repairs, and 
everyone pitched in to do whatever was needed.
    Alcohol-to-go became a lifeline for restaurants as Governor 
DeSantis issued an executive order allowing for alcohol sales for 
consumption off-premises--something that we are working to codify 
permanently through the Florida Legislature right now.
    We worked hard to keep our association members informed and 
connected to important COVID supplies and resources like PPE, and we 
even secured more than one million masks for our hospitality workers 
from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services when masks were 
hard to find. We conducted giveaway events for the workers and made 
sure they were connected to other important resources for support.
    FRLA and our members were heavily engaged on Governor DeSantis' Re-
opening Task Force, creating re-opening guidance and safety procedures 
for hotels and restaurants along with our great partners at the 
National Restaurant Association, the American Hotel and Lodging 
Association (AHLA), and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association 
(AAHOA). We strongly advocated for Federal relief like the CARES Act 
and the Paycheck Protection Program, which was truly the difference 
between survival of our businesses and them being forced to close their 
doors and leave their teams without work.
    As our Governor implemented his re-opening plan and counties began 
opening gradually, building consumer confidence was critical. FRLA 
launched our Seal of Commitment program to provide enhanced sanitation 
and COVID safety training for the industry which would result in a Seal 
they could display as a promise to build confidence for both employees 
and guests and to demonstrate that the staff are well-trained, and that 
the establishment exceeds sanitation protocols. We are also working 
with AHLA to promote their Safe Stay program for hotels.
    We worked to promote increased dining room allowances as our COVID 
numbers went down and asked for small events to be permitted with 
social distancing. I had the honor of participating in a roundtable in 
Central Florida before Vice President Mike Pence and was joined by 
other industry leaders to discuss the challenges we were facing.
    We are proud of the progress we have made towards rebuilding such 
an important industry in Florida, but there is still much work to be 
done. We are hard at work right now in our state's legislative session 
where our Governor has already signed the first bill of the session to 
limit civil liability against businesses for damages related to COVID-
19. This new law is critical for so many who are doing the right things 
day in and day out for customers and staff but feared needing resources 
they do not have to fight a nuisance lawsuit.
    While we push for other important state needs like codifying 
alcohol-to-go, tourism marketing funding, and protecting the revenue 
from tourism and convention tax dollars, we also need continued support 
from you and your fellow Senators, as well as your colleagues in the 
U.S. House and across the Federal government. We were pleased that the 
CDC recently released new guidance on vaccinated travelers, which will 
help to build confidence in both personal and business travel, but more 
could be done to aid in recovery. Perhaps there could be more COVID 
liability protections for businesses who normally produce events and 
have large conventions across the U.S.
    Also, our industry is facing historic workforce challenges. Despite 
our ability in Florida to operate at 100 percent capacity, many are 
unable to because of a lack of staff. Simply put, we are competing with 
state and Federal unemployment benefits. At the beginning of the 
pandemic when there were no jobs, this unemployment was critical for 
our workers who were furloughed or laid off, but now, we have the jobs, 
but many are unwilling to go back to work when they can obtain similar 
pay while at home. Some may have been hesitant to return until greater 
access to vaccinations were implemented, but all adults in Florida now 
have that access and still we cannot hire enough staff. We have 
businesses limiting their capacity, reducing operating hours, and 
closing on days they are usually open because there is not enough staff 
to meet the needs of our guests. We are working on state solutions 
through innovating partnerships with career resource organizations, job 
fairs, hiring signing incentives, and competitive wages, but our 
efforts have been only minimally effective. While you look to next 
steps in how to aid in the recovery of our industry, I ask you to 
remember this staffing challenge. In Florida, we are open for business 
and desperate for workers.
    We are on the road to recovery, but the effects of COVID on our 
industry are still present. The national tourism industry suffered more 
than $500 billion in pandemic-related losses, with leisure and 
hospitality accounting for nearly 40 percent of pandemic-related 
unemployment.
    Pre-pandemic, hotels supported one in 25 American jobs with 2.3 
million direct hotel jobs and 8.3 million hotel-supported jobs, which 
contributed $660 billion to the U.S. GDP. But the hotel industry has 
been decimated and faces a much slower recovery than other business 
sectors.
    According to AHLA, half of U.S. hotel rooms are projected to remain 
empty in 2021. While 2019's average national occupancy was 66 percent, 
occupancy fell to 44 percent in 2020, and many of my members in Florida 
had single-digit occupancy last year. Occupancy is projected to average 
at 52.5 percent this year. Only 21 percent of consumers have traveled 
for a vacation or leisure since the beginning of the pandemic, and only 
a little more than a quarter of those stayed in a hotel. Hotel 
employment is not expected to rebound until 2023. One major factor 
affecting hotel revenue is the lack of business travel, which is 
projected to remain down 85 percent this year and will not return to 
pre-pandemic levels until 2024. This is critical because business 
travel is the single largest source of hotel revenue. Businesses across 
the world have put in place travel bans or at least have severely 
restricted travel, which has resulted in huge losses in Florida--
especially in Orlando and Central Florida.
    Visitors to Florida dropped to its lowest point in over a decade 
with just 86 million visitors in 2020. Local and state tax revenue from 
visitors significantly dropped from $41.1 billion in 2019 to $27 
billion in 2020. And across the US, hotels faced closing and 
foreclosure and direct hotel and hotel-supported jobs were lost in 
staggering numbers. With nearly 175,000 jobs lost--nearly a quarter of 
our total hotel jobs--Florida had the second highest direct hotel and 
hotel-supported job loss in the Nation only behind California and far 
exceeding Nevada, New York, and Texas.
    And restaurants have been shattered as well from COVID. From 
nationwide shutdowns and bans on indoor dining to irresponsible and 
misleading claims--even from the CDC--about the safety of restaurants, 
it has been incredibly tough. While some sectors like fine dining were 
affected more than the fast casual and quick service sectors, all 
restaurants have experienced significant loss this year.
    Data from the National Restaurant Association tells us that 2020 
ended with total sales that were $240 billion less than the pre-
pandemic forecast for the year. Although restaurant and foodservice 
sales are expected to post double-digit growth in 2021, it will not be 
nearly enough to make up for the substantial losses from 2020. 
Nationally, more than 8 million eating and drinking establishment 
employees were laid off or furloughed--nearly 600,000 of those were in 
Florida. More than 110,000 restaurants closed permanently, including 
10,000 in Florida. Most of those shuttered locations were not new 
ventures; they had been well-established and in operation for more than 
15 years, and 16 percent had been open for at least 30 years. This is a 
lasting blow to communities across the U.S. who are centered around 
neighborhood restaurants. Many restaurants survived by changing their 
business model overnight to shift to off-premises and delivery. They 
created contactless options and dramatically reduced their menus to 
control waste. As I previously mentioned, they set up or expanded 
outdoor dining, sold packaged bundled meals, and served cocktails to go 
with the food. The rise of technology that was projected in the next 
five to 10 years happened in just one year. Overall, the eating and 
drinking place sector finished 2020 down nearly 2.5 million jobs 
nationally. And now that Florida and other states have opened or are in 
the process of doing so, we are facing these historic labor shortages 
that are restricting us from getting out of the hole we have been in 
for the last year. And yet, we are hopeful. PPP, tax credits, and the 
recently passed American Rescue Plan all have been huge victories for 
our industry. The Restaurant Revitalization Fund will provide $28.6 
billion in grants for restaurants who desperately need it.
    I want to thank Ranking Member Wicker and Committee Member Sinema 
for your bipartisan work in creating the RESTAURANTS Act. While it is 
not a silver bullet and the restaurant industry will need more support 
to recover from this ongoing crisis, it is an absolutely invaluable 
tool to keep restaurants open across our Nation. We are extremely 
grateful for all you have done.
    Travel, tourism, and the hospitality industries have all faced the 
worst year in recent industry history and will be recovering for a long 
time. And while the financial recovery will come first, the emotional 
toll of this crisis will linger for a long time. In Florida, we 
understand emergencies--whether environmental events, hurricanes, or 
even terrorist or mass casualty events. . .but we have never been 
tested quite like COVID has tested us. We have been fighting hard to 
survive just one more day. . .for more than a year. It is exhausting 
and yet, we see the light at the end of the tunnel and are eager to 
reach it. We are resilient, and we are, quite literally, in the 
business of serving people. We love nothing more than to create 
memorable experiences for visitors and guests that keep them coming 
back. But we need them to be able to come back: international visitors, 
cruises, business travel. . .We are working to rebuild this industry we 
love so dearly, and we like to say that we are ``Hospitality Strong,'' 
but we have no problem asking for help. And we still need that support 
from you as we rebuild.
    Thank you. I would be happy to take any questions you may have.

    Senator Rosen. Well, thank you so much for your opening 
remarks, and I really appreciate everyone's thoughtful opening 
remarks because Senator Scott and I believe that we must get 
Americans traveling again. And so, as we have discussed several 
times, travel and tourism, of course, are the lifeblood of 
Nevada's economy.
    COVID-19, like you all have said, has taken a toll on our 
workers across this Nation, on our businesses, and on our 
communities. But with more Americans getting vaccinated and the 
CDC giving the green light for safe travel, there is a light at 
the end of the tunnel. But to fully recover and bring back the 
jobs lost, the industry, we must bring it back to pre-pandemic 
levels. We need to get Americans and the world traveling again. 
That means making sure that people from across the country and 
across the globe know that our tourism destinations, they are 
open for business.
    So, Mr. Perez, can you talk about the importance of out-of-
state and international travelers to MGM success and that of 
its work force, and I would say all of our hotels in the 
success of its work force, please.
    Mr. Perez. Thank you, Ms. Chair. Let me start off first 
with the regional properties. You know, we are in seven 
different states, some of the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and down 
Senator Wicker's neck of the woods, down in Mississippi. For 
those properties, most of our business comes from an hour's 
drive and we were a bit more insulated, barring the closure 
obviously, but we were a bit more insulated in Las Vegas, 
because the barriers of travel were just easier. You could jump 
in your car and not have to deal with airfare and that sort of 
thing. Las Vegas--and I will parallel that too with we do have 
two semi-destination resorts, one of which is in Biloxi, 
Mississippi.
    That property also was hampered more as compared to the 
other seven, as an example. It behaved a little bit more like 
Las Vegas. And it also Borgata in Atlantic City had similar 
characteristics to recovery in Las Vegas, but nowhere near as 
devastating. And to your point, and you have heard the 
testimony from the panelists, the getting customers comfortable 
with air travel primarily is paramount. And it is going to take 
some time to get international travel to come back in earnest, 
particularly in Las Vegas, which is vitally important.
    We know those customers stay longer. They enjoy our 
restaurants, they enjoy our casinos, they enjoy our shows. They 
spend quite a bit on retail. And they are vitally important to 
Nevada and Las Vegas' economy. So anything that we can do 
certainly to reduce those barriers would be incredibly helpful, 
especially for Las Vegas.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you. Mr. Hill, I would like to ask you 
a similar question, but really about our conventions. We know 
that conventions, business travel is the lifeblood of not just 
Las Vegas, but so many other cities across the country. So how 
do you feel about what can we do to bring that ecotourism back, 
what do we need, and its importance to our communities?
    Mr. Hill. Thank you, Chair Rosen. Ranking Member Scott 
earlier mentioned the connection between tourism and economic 
development, and I would just add that really tourism is 
economic development too, and it brings money in from outside 
of our State into our state. It creates those 26 percent of the 
jobs in Nevada. It is a--it is the economic engine for our 
state. And domestic and international tourists are what make 
that possible.
    That, you know, a year ago or a little longer ago when we 
were trying to get from 87 percent room occupancy to 90 
percent, that concept seemed maybe not as important as what we 
went through when we shut down for 10 weeks and didn't have any 
visitors in Nevada, and as you pointed out, suffered the worst 
unemployment rate of any state in history during that period of 
time. So it is--our domestic and international travelers are 
what make this state go.
    And we need to do everything we can to allow them to 
return, and I know everyone is. From a meeting and convention 
perspective, we are excited to have, I think, the first large 
trade show in the United States returning to our convention 
center in early June, The World of Concrete by Informa, the 
publicly traded firm that is one of the biggest customers of 
Las Vegas. That is a show that typically has 50,000-60,000 
attendees. We don't think it will be that size, but it will be 
a major show. And we look forward not only to that show 
returning, but it serving as evidence and an example of how to 
do this right. And we are excited about that.
    International visitation is a big component of visitation, 
both from a business traveler standpoint as well as the leisure 
traveler. We enjoy about 15 percent in a normal year visitation 
from our international fans, and that has been almost 
completely shut down and has not really started to recover at 
this point. And as Ms. Barnes mentioned, working to get those 
back, those visitors back, working on a method so that they can 
have confidence in their travel plans and be able to 
confidently make those trips we think is critically important.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you. And now I will recognize Ranking 
Member Scott.
    Senator Scott. Thank you, Chair Rosen. I want to thank each 
of the witnesses for your testimony. Ms. Dover, in your written 
testimony you state that the travel and tourism industry is 
facing historic labor shortages, which could significantly 
restrict the industry from recovering from the severe downturn. 
Can you share the reasons behind this? Would you be able to 
give you some examples from your members as well as what they 
have done to mitigate this issue? And just go ahead and talk 
about some of the challenges your members are facing with 
regard to labor shortages.
    Ms. Dover. Yes, thank you very much, Senator Scott. So as I 
stated in my other statement that we are in competition with 
our unemployment system, so many people are making more money 
staying home, and we are having a really tough time getting 
people to even want to apply for jobs. We have been hosting job 
fairs. Some of our members are even offering bonuses, and 
people are still not showing up to apply for the jobs.
    Just a couple of examples, Senator, that we are hearing 
from our members. I have a member yesterday who was telling me 
that they haven't had their garbage picked up in almost a week. 
And so this is bigger than just the hotel and restaurant 
industry. The waste management industry, they don't have 
drivers. We got notice from our food distribution companies and 
our beverage companies that they may not be receiving their 
products in a timely manner because they, too, don't have 
enough drivers applying for jobs.
    So one of the things that we are in hopes is that we can 
find between both State and Federal--clearly, unemployment is 
important for many people, but there are so many jobs available 
right now that if we could go back to a system where you used 
to have to show that you had applied and been turned down for 
several jobs, three jobs, I believe is what it was in Florida, 
that if we could reverse some of those mandates, then I believe 
that we could begin to see people want to go back to work. So 
we are desperate.
    And anything that you all can do in Congress to help us 
relieve this burden. I hear from my colleagues all across the 
country that this is not just a Florida issue, that it is 
everywhere. So thank you for asking and allowing me the 
opportunity to talk to you about our very critical labor 
shortage.
    Senator Scott. So Ms. Dover, so if somebody--if an employer 
tells an employee that they have a job opening, in my 
understanding Nationwide we have 7.4 million job openings. If 
an employer says they have a job opening does the employee, are 
they able to continue on unemployment or do they--are they 
required to come back to work?
    Ms. Dover. Well, they are not required, Senator, from my 
understanding, to come back to work. They can make the decision 
and what we are trying to also do, education to many of the 
people who are not coming back to work is to remind them that 
these jobs will not be available forever. I mean, we have all, 
you have heard us all today on the panel talk about the need to 
rebound and we will rebound. This is--we are a resilient 
country, and we will rebound. But 1 day these jobs that people 
are turning down won't be available anymore.
    So we are reminding people to take these jobs while they 
are available. Unemployment in Florida is already down to a 
little over 4 percent. So it is not long before we are going to 
be in a very low unemployment and nearly an unemployable. So 
hopefully we can get people to see that we have great jobs 
available. Florida is the tourism mecca. We have--just 
hopefully people will see the importance of coming back to 
work.
    Senator Scott. Thank you, Ms. Dover. Ms. Barnes, we have 
seen the cruise industry at a standstill under the current CDC 
restrictions with no timeline in place for return. What impact 
has this had not only on the cruise industry, but throughout 
the travel and tourism industries?
    Ms. Barnes. Thank you for the question. You know, we very 
much are supportive of the legislation that you and Senator 
Sullivan introduced today along with Senator Rubio, because we 
really do think that the entire industry needs to have clear 
guidelines on how to reopen with the timeline and a date 
certain to do so. And really, we are normally used to welcoming 
over 13 million travelers via cruise ship annually to the 
United States and the impact that that has on ports and 
destinations throughout the country, restaurants, attractions, 
folks that are--being able to sell gifts for their families at 
those ports and in those cities.
    So the impact really has been quite significant. And we 
really believe that every segment of the industry should be 
able, again, to reopen and that it isn't fair not to have clear 
guidelines. So we hope that the CDC will be able to put forward 
clear guidelines in the immediate term, because the economic 
consequences really are significant not only to Florida, but to 
the other countries--like Alaska, Louisiana, California, 
Washington and other states across the country.
    Senator Scott. Thank you. Thank you, Chair Rosen.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you, Senator Scott. I would like to 
next recognize via WebEx, Senator Klobuchar.

               STATEMENT OF HON. AMY KLOBUCHAR, 
                  U.S. SENATOR FROM MINNESOTA

    Senator Klobuchar. Thank you very much, Chair Rosen, and 
thank you as well to Senator Scott. And I am really excited to 
hear from our witnesses today. I know this has been such a 
tough time for tourism but having this hearing couldn't be more 
timely. I have long been involved in this issue from the time 
that I had the job of chairing the Tourism Subcommittee in 
Commerce. Proud of the work that we have done together with 
some of the witnesses on Brand USA and the work that you are 
doing today.
    And I guess I would start there because I know that Senator 
Rosen asked a question and talked about the loss at least of 
international travel on the MGM Resorts and also really 
everywhere in the country, which is part of the reason we were 
so proud of the work we have done on Brand USA, which finally 
allowed us to have an even playing field when it came to 
promoting our own country. This has been a real gut punch for 
the tourism industry, obviously. We had to shut down the 
borders for international tourists.
    But as we see this, as we call it on Lake Superior, the 
lighthouse on the horizon, as opposed to light at the end of 
the tunnel, with the vaccine and what is happening. Ms. Barnes, 
in your testimony, you highlight that if international travel 
is not reopened soon, a total of 1.1 million American jobs and 
$262 billion in spending will be lost by the end of 2021. And 
that temporary emergency funding for Brand USA is needed. Can 
you talk about what resources you think are needed?
    Ms. Barnes. Sure. Thank you, Senator, for your question and 
for your tremendous leadership as the Chair of the Travel 
Tourism Caucus in the Senate. We are very grateful for your 
leadership in particular as we sought to reauthorize Brand USA 
back in late 2019, which feels like a decade ago.
    Senator Klobuchar. Except you must admit we were smart to 
do it early. We got it done a year early, thanks to Senator 
Blunt and other things.
    Ms. Barnes. Yes. Thank you. So, as I noted, international 
travel declined by 76 percent. And right now we are looking at 
a 5-year time horizon for recovery. But we know that we can 
shorten that timeline. And just in the losses for 2021, if we 
are able to reopen international travel by July, that can 
stymie 40 percent of the expected losses this year. So we 
really need Brand USA that is currently having a funding 
challenge because of the lack of international travel. Usually 
the ESTA fee is coming in in a robust fashion and capped at 
$100 million, which goes to Brand USA.
    But because that money isn't coming in, because the 
international borders are closed, we really need an emergency 
funding mechanism. What we think is about $250 million in an 
appropriation. Usually the $100 million that comes in on 
international fees is matched by the private sector. But 
unfortunately, due to the decimation of the private sector 
right now, those matching funds are unlikely to be captured. 
So, again, if the Appropriations Committee could put forward 
$250 million, we think they will be able to do their work to 
bring back international travelers and make sure that that 26 
to 1 return on investment is provided. And I will just note 
this, since we were talking about exports, that in 2019 the 
tourism industry provided a $59 billion export for the country. 
So it really is important beyond just domestic funding.
    Senator Klobuchar. Very good. And then another bill that 
Senator Blunt and I have introduced, the Protecting Tourism in 
the United States Act, directs the Commerce Department in 
consultation with the U.S. Travel and Tourism Board and key 
Federal agencies to develop a plan to help the tourism industry 
recover. Simply because, you know, I think that as things are 
getting a little better, their ramp up is going to be slower by 
virtue of the nature of the customers here and where they come 
from and how they can travel than other industries.
    And I guess I will turn to you on--to you with this, Mr. 
Perez. And by the way, I also want to mention the great 
leadership of Chair Rosen as well as Senator Cortez Masto on 
these issues with Nevada. But one report found that in 2020 
more than 670,000 hotel industry jobs, and in your testimony 
you note that MGM Resorts had to furlough 60,000 employees as a 
result of the pandemic. Can you speak to how long the hotel 
industry can sustain itself on the current Federal economic 
relief, particularly regarding your work force?
    Mr. Perez. Thank you very much, Senator, for the question. 
The employees are coming back not only in Las Vegas, but also 
for our regional properties, but they are doing so when the 
customers have started to come back. What we have seen clearly 
as vaccinations, shots in arms are becoming more and more 
pervasive, things have turned around relatively quickly.
    The question for us is, how sustainable is that? Because it 
happened as we were leaving the winter, if you will, entering 
better weather and getting along with the stimulus. So there is 
a little bit of noise, but the way this is--I apologize, can 
you repeat the question for a second, I am sorry.
    Senator Klobuchar. No, it is--it OK because I am probably 
out of time and my colleagues are probably glad that you forgot 
the question. But I was just thinking about--it was mostly 
about how long the hotel industry can sustain itself.
    Mr. Perez. Yes. So, what I am seeing, I will just end it 
really quickly. And right now, it is a bit of a challenge, 
particularly in Las Vegas and a few of the other regional 
properties, to find labor for the reasons mentioned earlier. 
And the--you know, as our customers return, we feel that with 
time we can get our employees back and do this in the right 
form and right fashion so, but it is a process.
    Senator Klobuchar. Very good. And we hope you are working 
as well with Carlson companies in Minnesota. We are proud of 
the work they are doing. Thank you.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you, Senator Klobuchar. Next, I would 
like to recognize in person, Senator Sullivan.

                STATEMENT OF HON. DAN SULLIVAN, 
                    U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA

    Senator Sullivan. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I really 
appreciate this committee. I think it is exciting. I think it 
is going to be an important committee. Very bipartisan, all 
these issues and I am looking forward to your and Senator 
Scott's leadership on this. Ms. Barnes, I wanted to ask you, 
you mentioned my Visit America Act, which is very bipartisan 
with Senator Schatz and Senator King. One thing it would do, it 
would establish an Assistant Secretary of Commerce for travel 
and tourism.
    As you and I have discussed, many countries have cabinet 
officials in charge of tourism. We don't even have an Assistant 
Secretary. Now, I am not a big Government guy. But as you know, 
when you are in the debates within the Federal agencies, you 
need someone, Senate confirmed, to stand up for this huge part 
of our economy which goes across so many states. Can you share 
with me a little bit of your perspective of the importance of 
this Act that passed out of this committee very strongly, every 
Senator but one voted for it? And we are going to try and move 
it again quickly this year.
    Ms. Barnes. Yes, thank you for your question and for your 
leadership on this issue. You are right. We are the only one of 
the top 30 global destinations that doesn't have a cabinet 
level person and, or an arm that actually goes out and promotes 
travel. That is why we have Brand USA. So we believe very much 
that the leadership is needed. We have been very pleased with 
Secretary Raimondo's interest in how important travel and 
tourism is to the industry. But obviously she has many things 
to focus on.
    So we couldn't agree with you more that we would like to 
see your bill introduced again quickly and passed. And we have 
already also raised with the Secretary the importance of 
elevating this position. So I am hopeful that we will be able 
to move it forward. It is also something that we have talked to 
the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board at the National Travel 
and Tourism Office at the Department of Commerce about and 
believe that with this type of leadership to really be able to 
draw that interagency group together, that we can set that 
National strategy to reopen not only domestic travel, but bring 
back international travel, bring back meetings and events. We 
need the whole of the industry focused upon and having a 
cabinet level position would absolutely help do that.
    Senator Sullivan. Great. Thank you. My next question is for 
you and Ms. Dover. I want to talk a little bit about the cruise 
ship industry. And, you know, a lot of times the industry gets 
attacked for certain issues. But what I really want to talk 
about is how important this industry is to small businesses, 
whether in Florida or in Alaska, and if you can give us a sense 
on that. But also, Ms. Barnes, I saw that the U.S. Travel 
Association recently called for the CDC to end its ban on 
cruise ship travel in America. That is what our bill, Senator 
Scott and my bill, the CRUISE Act that we introduced today, 
would do. And they need the guidance.
    And look, the CDC does a good job on the science. They have 
had a tough year, an important agency. My state has worked hard 
dealing with the health issues. We have been the number one 
state in the country throughout the pandemic in terms of 
testing per capita, in terms of the vaccination rates per 
capita. We are proud of that in Alaska. Fortunately, one of the 
lowest death rates per capita.
    But my state's economy is getting crushed. Oil and gas, no 
help from the Biden Administration there, which is anti-oil and 
gas. Commercial fishing, tourism, as it has hurt so many 
industries. Senator Murkowski and I had a meeting with the CDC 
Director a couple of weeks ago. With all due respect to her, 
she didn't really have a clue on these issues. We had another 
follow-up meeting on her with her recently. She gave us a lot 
of good news. All the guidance on the cruise ships was going to 
be coming out at the same time. There was going to be needs for 
new CDC approvals.
    Cruising in America and Alaska by mid-July was what she 
thought we could do and none of that turned out to be true. So 
that is 0 for 2 on meetings with U.S. Senators. I think 
somebody on her staff needs to be held accountable. She is 
obviously getting really, really bad information from people, 
but it is really disappointing. But can you and Ms. Dover, if 
you have a view on it, give us a sense of why you think it is 
important to get cruising again, particularly when cruise ship 
industries, executives are coming together saying, hey, we will 
have it, we will put an escrow account in if there is funding 
issues, we will make sure everybody on the ships are 
vaccinated.
    There is a whole host of things that can happen that we can 
do this safely while still taking into account the economy and 
the health impacts, let's face it, of Americans who are out of 
work because of this ban.
    Ms. Barnes. Sir, thank you for the question. Again, we 
really believe that no sector of the travel industry should be 
unable to be able to reopen. One U.S. job is created just with 
30 cruisers, so 30 people on a ship equals 1 U.S. job. That is 
a significant contribution to the U.S. economy. And quite 
frankly, we think that there needs to be clear guidelines so 
that we can reopen this summer. Sorry, am I over time?--Oh, 
okay, sorry.
    I am sorry, but to finish, we do believe that we need clear 
guidelines, very much support the legislation you introduced 
today. We also don't believe that there should be a vaccine 
requirement to travel, but we do think that it is an important 
layer, and we are very much advocating that folks get 
vaccinated.
    Senator Sullivan. And Ms. Dover, do you have a view on any 
of this? Sorry, Madam Chair, I will go over, but I know it is 
important to Florida too.
    Ms. Dover. Thank you very much, Senator Sullivan, for the 
question, and to Tori Barnes, she answered it very well, but to 
just add on to what she said. In Florida, we have over 115,000 
jobs that were relying on the cruise industry. The trickle-down 
effect of what you have mentioned, hotel rooms, restaurants, 
retail, gas that is suffering in those areas of Florida that 
rely so heavily on the cruise industry, not to mention what an 
economic engine it is to our state.
    So I would agree and echo everything that Tori Barnes said 
about we don't believe that maybe vaccinations are necessary. 
We know that the cruise line industry has been meeting round 
the clock to put in safety standards. There is nothing more 
important to them than the safety and health of the welfare of 
the people who want to cruise. So no industry is close. Florida 
has been open for business for many months, and we certainly 
believe that our cruise line friends should be allowed to open 
up for business and get out in the waters and start enjoying 
life again.
    Senator Sullivan. Alright. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you. And next, I would like to 
recognize our Chair, Senator Cantwell. And before I do, I just 
want to thank her for helping us to organize this committee. It 
is our inaugural hearing, and we look forward to just doing 
great work here. And we appreciate you allowing us to start on 
this mission. Senator Cantwell.

               STATEMENT OF HON. MARIA CANTWELL, 
                  U.S. SENATOR FROM WASHINGTON

    The Chairwoman. Well, thank you, Chair Rosen, and thank you 
to you and the Ranking Member. Appreciate both of your interest 
in this subject of tourism. And you are right, I couldn't be 
more excited about a committee that is called Tourism, Trade 
and Export Promotion, because that is pretty much the State of 
Washington, and very much appreciate the two of you bringing an 
intense focus to the tourism aspect amongst the other 
responsibilities here. I wanted to ask our witness, I think 
you, Ms. Barnes. Senator Scott and I introduced legislation on 
what I just call another layer of infrastructure. You guys have 
all articulated in your questions and many of our colleagues 
about the important economic consequence of tourism.
    Well, if it is such an important aspect to the economy, why 
aren't we doing more to build layers of protection into the 
system that gives us more data and information. So I traveled 
to China many years ago and the airport went through a 
screening as it related--I didn't really know I was going 
through a screening, but I was going through a screening on 
temperature checks. So we see small businesses all over the 
United States doing this now and doing it successfully.
    What do you think of getting the infrastructure at airports 
so that this is something that we can, again, just give more 
certainty and predictability to the system by just putting this 
kind of infrastructure in place?
    Ms. Barnes. We think as it relates to technology, that 
there is a lot of good that can be done from biometric 
touchless solutions that you can opt into, to additional layers 
within the airport. I think that, you know, as we--the travel 
industry put forward a guidance early in May of last year, has 
had the most great health and safety standards in hotels and 
airports, in airplanes, in every different mode of 
transportation and as well as in any every segment of the 
travel ecosystem. So we very much support anything that can 
help to continue safety, and the health and safety first and 
foremost.
    Again, we don't think that there should be a vaccine 
requirement to travel. We do think that is another important 
layer. But there are things, as you note, temperature checks 
and other systems that can be piloted perhaps to see how that 
how they can help the system move forward. One of the things we 
want to also be careful, though, is that we don't put anything 
in place that we can't ease as things get better with the 
health crisis because we don't want to be in 10 years from now, 
like we were taking off our shoes still after 9/11. We want to 
make sure that we have something that is adjustable as we move 
forward from the pandemic.
    The Chairwoman. I think Senator Scott and I are talking 
about something that is basic infrastructure. So the concept is 
airports where even just international destinations would have 
the kind of technology where you would just walk through and 
detect whether someone had a temperature or not. So I think you 
get a lot of pushback from people say, well, how many people 
have they caught in international airports? Well, I am not sure 
we have caught anybody lately at SeaTac on a National security 
issue as it relates to the TSA lines, but I am pretty sure we 
are going to keep the TSA line.
    So these things are lines of deterrence. And I just think 
that all of you are articulating how important the tourism 
economy is to us. I think thinking long term about what other 
challenges we face, I think it is a pretty cost effective 
technology that has been used around the world. So hopefully we 
will be able to get our colleagues to do the same here and 
better protect the traveling public and focus on what we can do 
to give confidence. So thank you, Madam Chair. Appreciate 
calling you that.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you very much, Senator Cantwell, Chair 
Cantwell. And next, I would like to recognize via WebEx, 
Senator Sinema.

               STATEMENT OF HON. KYRSTEN SINEMA, 
                   U.S. SENATOR FROM ARIZONA

    Senator Sinema. Well, thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you 
to all of our witnesses for joining us today. You know, tourism 
is such an important industry for my State of Arizona. In 2019, 
Arizona's tourism industry welcomed more than 46 million 
overnight visitors, which generated over $25 billion in direct 
travel spending and helped support State and local Government 
tax revenue. The COVID-19 pandemic has been very difficult for 
many Arizona communities, small business owners, and Arizonans 
who work in the tourism industry. In 2020, spending by domestic 
and international travelers declined by 35 percent, hurting 
many local businesses and putting many Arizonans out of work.
    According to Arizona Lodging and Tourism Association, 
COVID-19 has wiped out 10 years of job growth for Arizona 
tourism. And unfortunately, we are not out of the woods yet. 
Although 2021 has seen a recent uptick relative to 2020, we are 
still nowhere near the 2019 numbers, and that means that many 
Arizonans and Arizona businesses are still struggling. Given 
these significant challenges for Arizonans, I will continue to 
work with my colleagues on the Subcommittee to develop 
bipartisan solutions to these issues and help get Arizona's 
tourism industry back to work.
    My first question is for Ms. Dover. Many Arizona 
restaurants or small businesses rely on travelers to support 
their operations. As you know, I worked with my friend, Senator 
Roger Wicker to author the Restaurants Act, which was 
bipartisan legislation to provide structure relief to local and 
independent restaurants. And our effort became law as part of 
the American Rescue Plan. And soon restaurants will be able to 
apply for $20.6 billion of structured relief.
    Now, many restaurants also received assistance from the 
Paycheck Protection Program. Could you share from the 
perspective of restaurants why the restaurants relief is 
different than PPP and how you expect restaurants to benefit 
from these funds?
    Ms. Dover. Well, thank you, Senator, for your question. 
Obviously, first, I want to just thank all of you for the 
support that you have given the industry in passing the PPP 
because all of those were critical to just getting the industry 
propped up. But one of the things about the, your new 
Restaurant Revitalization Act is that they are going to look at 
minorities and small businesses and some who may have not been 
able to apply in the first go round.
    I can tell you that we are already hearing great concerns 
that that money may be gone in a very short order, so we are 
quite concerned about that. But we--you know, we represent just 
as many small, independent or more operators as we do large. 
And so many of our small businesses are struggling. So but for 
the first PPP round and now the Restaurant Revitalization Act, 
they would not be able to keep their doors open nor hire back 
their employees. So I want to thank you for that. The employee 
retention tax credit is critical also to our industry.
    And we want to thank you for all of the efforts that you 
have put forth, especially in extending that, because that was 
crucial to our employers in our industry.
    Senator Sinema. Well, thank you. My next question is for 
Ms. Barnes. According to a recent report by the American Hotel 
and Lodging Association, half of U.S. hotel rooms are projected 
to remain empty in 2021 and hotel employment is not expected to 
rebound until 2023. As you know, Arizona is a prime destination 
for large business and group travel.
    And according to the Arizona Lodging and Tourism 
Association, business and group travel accounts for more than 
half of annual hotel revenue. And estimates show that these 
travelers may not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024. Can 
you describe how business and group travel is so important to 
the tourism industry and how the decline in this type of travel 
has hurt Arizona small businesses?
    Ms. Barnes. Thank you, Senator, for the question, and I 
would echo, Carol Dover's comments about gratitude for the hard 
work that you have done on the Restaurant Act and many other 
issues on behalf of the industry. And as you note, 60 percent 
of business travel has declined in Arizona. And we think that 
it is really important that we have clear guidelines for 
reopening business meetings and events, and that we really 
differentiate them from mass gatherings.
    We think that this is absolutely critical that as other 
parts of the industry are able to open and other parts of the 
economy are able to open, the majority of revenue that comes 
into the industry really is from that business travel. So 40 to 
60 percent of revenues come from a hotel perspective and 
business travel. And when you think about it right now, while 
we are seeing that leisure market really pick up and that will 
help for certain weeks of the year and the weekends, Monday 
through Thursday travel really isn't happening right now. And 
until we open business travel up, it is not going to. So the 
thing that we need to do is beyond just opening up business 
meetings and events, we need to increase those gathering 
limitations for structured meetings. They can be held in a safe 
way.
    There are layers of protection. And as we have more and 
more folks vaccinated, that should be even more possible. So we 
hope that the CDC can put forth clear guidelines to increase 
those gathering limitations and to open up business meetings 
and events. Again, 70 percent decline year over year is just 
not acceptable or sustainable into the future.
    Senator Sinema. Alright, thank you. Madam Chair, I see my 
time has expired. Thank you for hosting this hearing.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you, Senator Sinema. Next, I would 
like to recognize Senator Hickenlooper via WebEx.

             STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN HICKENLOOPER, 
                   U.S. SENATOR FROM COLORADO

    Senator Hickenlooper. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I think 
this is a remarkably enlightening and informative session. 
First, I want to ask Mr. Hill, when we see the importance to 
cities and regions and States of convention business and how in 
many cases is the first place that a business executive will 
come to a different place, a different city, and you know, 
maybe 5 years later they will open an office there, it is 
vitally important for that, not to mention all the restaurant 
and hotel business that accompanies those visit.
    You are just as much captive to the loss of confidence as 
all the restaurants and hotels and musical venues, all the 
parts of hospitality, and I thought you actually might have the 
best perspective on how you are thinking of trying to rebuild 
that confidence in your consumers who are a little more 
educated in many cases, but certainly are subject to the same 
fears and cautions as the rest of the American public.
    Mr. Hill. Thank you for the question, Senator, and 
certainly for your support of our industry. And you are right, 
the confidence of the business people, leisure travelers, both, 
is critical to the return. We are seeing that as people get 
vaccinated, their confidence returns, starts to return because 
of that process. And frankly, those who have chosen not to be 
vaccinated may have some of that confidence as well. So the 
vaccination process is just exceptionally important. We 
encourage that to move forward as at least as quickly as it 
has. If we can increase that, that is great. That is critical. 
Getting past the health crisis is what will really restore 
confidence.
    Frankly, the messaging from our elected officials is 
important too. Consistency there--it is certainly important to 
have communicated the need to be careful, the need to be 
responsible and safe and healthy, but as that takes hold, 
messaging around, it is time to go back and travel, needs, I 
think, to be heard by all of our constituents out there.
    And it also, you know, a lot of people think of marketing 
as not necessarily generating information and providing our 
potential customers with that information, but particularly in 
this environment, having the ability to provide that 
information is really important. Frankly Senator Cortez Masto's 
Step Act bill is designed to help with that.
    Senator Hickenlooper. Great, thank you. Great answer, and I 
appreciate that. Ms. Barnes, I wanted to ask you also, again, 
coming from Colorado and having spent almost 20 years in 
hospitality and tourism, we have a big space for outdoor 
recreation. And in many cases, they were not as negatively 
impacted as some of the other forms of hospitality and tourism 
just because it is easier to social distance when you are 
outside hiking and things like that.
    But I do think that we have seen disruption in the trends. 
And I was wondering if you have got a sense on a National basis 
of what changes we have seen both in outdoor recreation but in 
total tourism, but especially concerned about outdoor 
recreation? Which of the changes and the disruptions are going 
to become permanent and which ones are more likely to bounce 
back? And is that a good thing or a bad thing?
    Ms. Barnes. Thank you for the question. You know, we are 
seeing and have seen a significant interest in visiting our 
National parks and going to beaches and definitely being in 
those outdoor recreation environments. That is something that 
in particular started last summer. And certain destinations 
definitely fared better than others because not everyone has 
the same to offer.
    But, you know, I think that that will be a trend for some 
period of time, that we will continue to see folks wanting to 
be in outdoor environments. However, it really is important 
that we bring back the whole of the economy and diversify that 
by broader--by more holistic opening of the country and of all 
of the experiences that all of the States and destinations have 
to offer throughout this country.
    I would say with regards to outdoor recreation, you know, a 
theme that has been important is making sure that we do have 
our National parks are sustainable for the future, that we are 
cognizant of some over-visitation trends. And so I think that 
there will be a return to making sure that we are cognizant and 
careful with our public lands moving forward. But overall, I 
expect that the outdoor environments will be here to stay for 
some period of time and folks will welcome those opportunities 
to get out and explore.
    Senator Hickenlooper. Great. Well, thank you very much. I 
see I am over my time, so Madam Chair, I will yield back the 
floor to you. Thank you.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you, Senator. I believe next via WebEx 
is Senator Blackburn.

              STATEMENT OF HON. MARSHA BLACKBURN, 
                  U.S. SENATOR FROM TENNESSEE

    Senator Blackburn. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. I 
appreciate this so much and appreciate the time and the 
attention that is focused on this. Ms. Barnes, let me come to 
you first. International travel. In your testimony, you talked 
about the CDC, DOT, DHS coming together to have a data-driven, 
risk-based roadmap by May to rescind international inbound 
travel restrictions by July 2021. What are you hearing from the 
agencies right now? Is there any consensus on a timeline for 
both inbound and outbound, these restrictions that we are 
hearing as we look to reopen our country's borders and allow 
this international travel?
    And I am asking you this because in Nashville, in 
Tennessee, in Nashville, in Memphis, the Great Smoky Mountains, 
you were just talking about people getting back, which of 
course, the Smoky Mountains are the most visited National Park 
in our entire park system. So let's talk about getting that 
open and people coming back into these tourism spots in our 
country.
    Ms. Barnes. Thank you, Senator, for the question. And I 
think right now there really is a hesitancy to really create a 
roadmap to reopen international travel, and that is something 
that we really are urging the Biden Administration to put 
forth. Some agencies have a zero risk based approach. Some are 
interested in finding a path forward. And throughout the 
pandemic, we really heard the data and science should lead the 
way. And so we agree. We think that there can be a data-driven, 
science-based approach to reopening international travel and 
other countries, our competition really, are already 
contemplating that.
    We have seen timelines put out by the United Kingdom and 
others and really think that with a clear roadmap that 
contemplates vaccination rates and perhaps infection rates and 
others, that there can be a reopening. And first and foremost, 
we need that timeline. We need a timeline that is certain.
    So when we look at May, we are saying please put out a road 
map for reopening so that we can you know, if it is starting 
with the U.K. and a travel corridor, then let's do that. But we 
need to find a path. We need to have clear timelines and 
benchmarks and clarity from the Federal Government. We should 
be a leader in this regard. We are the United States of America 
and we want to be able to welcome international travelers back 
to the U.S.
    Senator Blackburn. Sounds good. And I think it was Mr. Hill 
who is Las Vegas tourism. Is that correct?
    Mr. Hill. That is correct, Senator.
    Senator Blackburn. Yes, and you know, Las Vegas, like 
Nashville, depends a lot on the event venues. And you have 
talked about the work force. And as our live event industry 
looks to recover, one of the things we have learned is about 30 
percent of the people in the firms have left the industry and 
30 percent of the support service firms have actually ceased to 
exist during the pandemic. So what do you see as the way back 
to the live event and the concert industry for areas like Las 
Vegas and Nashville? How are they going to handle this 
workforce shortage?
    Mr. Hill. Senator, I was in your state at the NFL draft a 
couple of years ago and Nashville did such a great job. We 
learned a lot. We look forward to hosting that draft next year. 
So I want to say thanks for your support for the industry and 
the question. There is--when you dissipate a vast majority of 
your work force, the ability to get them back is very 
difficult.
    And there are--we are experiencing, Mr. Perez mentioned 
earlier, experiencing labor shortages here, even though we are 
quite a ways away from a full recovery. But the ability to 
attract people back to the industry, particularly after they 
have been dislocated, they are concerned about the certainty of 
that job, is going to be an issue the industry is going to have 
to deal with moving forward. It is going to be difficult to do.
    Senator Blackburn. Yes. Well, we are going to have to do 
it, and in Nashville, a large part of the tourism industry is 
comprised of conventions and convention work. And I know 
between June and the end of the year, there are 80 major 
conventions that are on the books in Nashville, and that would 
be about $200 million in direct spending and $16 million in 
State taxes. Now, without clearly defined timelines these 
conventions are threatening to cancel. You know, we kind of got 
that hanging out there. So are you seeing the same thing in Las 
Vegas? And what are you doing to keep these in person 
conventions coming your way?
    Mr. Hill. We are seeing the same thing, Senator. It takes 
three, four, or 5 months at times for these meetings and 
conventions to plan the event, to mobilize for the event. And 
it is expensive for them to do that. If they don't have some 
level of certainty that the event is going to be able to take 
place, we were seeing conventions cancel four to 6 months out 
on kind of a rolling basis.
    Recently, our Governor provided some certainty and so we 
are able to go forward with World of Concrete, which we think 
will be kind of a gateway event for the industry, not only here 
in Nevada, but to be able to show how to do it right, that it 
went well. The entire industry is watching that. And we think 
that should provide some confidence so that policy 
decisionmakers can provide that certainty moving forward.
    Senator Blackburn. That is great. Thank you so much, Madam 
Chairman. I yield my time.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you. I am going to go to a second 
round of questions. I know I have a lot of questions, but just 
one final question and then ask for Senator Scott for a final 
question. So as I have been hearing all the thoughtful 
testimony and questions from all of my colleagues, what I am 
really struck by is the bottom line is about infrastructure, 
how tourism infrastructure, how important it is.
    So we are going to be moving forward with infrastructure 
legislation here in the U.S. Senate and Congress in general, 
and we have an opportunity to make investments that revive and 
enhance our travel and tourism economy. Of course, in Nevada, 
our airports are gateways to everything we have to offer. 
Before the pandemic, they were nearly at capacity. Those who 
don't fly to us come to us at bus or cars. We have highways 
that need major improvement, even expansion. Northern part of 
my state, our rail offers another place for visiting wonderful 
places like Reno, Elko, and Winnemucca.
    And rail service, of course, has slowed over the past year. 
So what I would like to ask Mr. Hill and then Ms. Barnes, how 
key is passing an infrastructure bill that deals with our ports 
for the cruises, of course, our ports, our roads, our bridges, 
our airports, our railways in order to get the tourism economy 
revitalized? Mr. Hill.
    Mr. Hill. Chair Rosen, thank you for the question. This has 
been an issue that I have worked on for most of my career. And 
as you mentioned, all modes of transportation are critical in 
order to allow our industry to recover and thrive in the 
future. And nowhere is that more critically seen in Las Vegas 
than the I-15 corridor. We have more than recovered our drive 
traffic and that has more than caused the congestion that we 
have in 2019, for example.
    So that National travel strategy, the infrastructure 
strategy that I mentioned earlier, I think is critically 
important, and funding it through an infrastructure package is 
equally important. It is--and I will mention I appreciate the 
support that Congress has given to the airlines and the 
airports. That industry is exceptionally capital intensive and 
it obviously suffered significantly during the depths of the 
pandemic.
    Not having the ability to have that industry start 
immediately back up when the demand is there would have been 
devastating. And it is--that focus in particular was 
appreciated and important when that happened.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you. Ms. Barnes.
    Ms. Barnes. Thank you and I would echo Mr. Hill's comments 
regarding the necessary funding for the travel infrastructure 
strategy. If we have a system to move freight, we should also 
have the funding mechanism to move people. I would add to that 
though that large hub infrastructure for airports is also 
critically important, investing in high speed rail and 
Hyperloop, and also in electric vehicle technology 
infrastructure.
    As we know, the auto manufacturers have set deadlines or 
goals, I should say, of 2035 and in some cases earlier or after 
that, to have all electric fleets. And so as we think about the 
great American road trip, we should really think about the 
green American road trip and how infrastructure, if you are 
going to drive from Florida to California or New York to 
Washington, how you can do that in a sustainable way. So we 
think that these infrastructure aspects will be really 
important and that the urgency for funding these projects is 
now.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you. I look forward myself too--I have 
driven across the country a few times. The great American road 
trip, it is wonderful, and we have an amazingly beautiful 
country. Each and every state has something wonderful to offer. 
And hopefully we are going to get started back now that we are 
starting to put the pandemic in the rearview mirror. Senator 
Scott.
    Senator Scott. I want to finish by, again, thanking Chair 
Rosen for this great committee hearing today. I want to thank 
all my colleagues and we thank all the panelists for their 
thoughtful questions and conversation. Ms. Barnes, how is 
Puerto Rico doing with their tourism industry as it is 
recovering? You know, they had Hurricane Maria, they had the 
earthquake, and now they have had COVID. So are you seeing 
travelers come back to the island? What are you hearing about 
Puerto Rico?
    Ms. Barnes. Yes, so travel spending is down about 48 
percent. So it is quite significant obviously. Their economy so 
heavily dependent on tourism. And as we have talked about here, 
the business meetings and events and international travel, it 
really creates a significant challenge for them. So I know you 
have been such a tremendous leader for Puerto Rico and the 
issues that that destination is facing. But I think that there 
is still a lot of work to do.
    And I think that by more broadly reopening, again, 
international and being able to bring business meetings and 
events back, that that will be helpful in helping Puerto Rico 
grow back again. Obviously, they have had a year over year 
challenges. So, again, thank you for your leadership, but there 
is a lot more work that needs to be done.
    Senator Scott. Thank you. Again, thank you. Thank you, 
Chair Rosen. It was a great event.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you. Well, I would again like to thank 
our four witnesses for being here today, Mr. Steve Hill, Mr. 
Jorge Perez, Ms. Tori Emerson Barnes, and Ms. Carol Dover. We 
really appreciate your work in this area. We look forward to 
working with you going forward. I would like to submit for the 
record three letters, one from the Exhibitions and Conference 
Alliance, another from the American Hotel and Lodging 
Association, and a third from the American Bus Association.
    [The information referred to follows:]

                         Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance
                                                     April 13, 2021

Hon. Jacky Rosen,
Chair,
Subcommittee on Tourism, Trade, and Export Promotion,
United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation,
Washington, DC.

Hon. Rick Scott,
Ranking Member,
Subcommittee on Tourism, Trade, and Export Promotion,
United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation,
Washington, DC.

Dear Chair Rosen and Ranking Member Scott:

    On behalf of the Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance (ECA), the 
unified voice of the face-to-face business events industry, thank you 
for hosting today's important hearing on ``The State of Travel and 
Tourism During COVID.'' Given the critical role that exhibitions, 
conferences, trade shows, and other face-to-face business events play 
in the broader travel and tourism ecosystem, we appreciate the 
opportunity to share our views on how Congress can support the recovery 
and advancement of our industry and get Americans back to work and back 
to business.
    The economic significance of face-to-face business events in the 
United States cannot be overstated. In 2019, our industry contributed 
$396 billion in direct spending to the economy while supporting 
6,640,000 jobs nationwide. As a result, business events drove $130 
billion in total tax revenue in 2019 at the federal, state, and local 
levels: $51 billion in Federal taxes and $79 billion in state and local 
taxes. Additionally, these events generated a further $419 billion in 
event-related economic impact in local communities across the country, 
including $55 billion in hotel spending, $32 billion in airline travel, 
$30 billion in restaurant and retail spending, and $29 billion on 
ground transportation.
    Moreover, it is important to note that small businesses are the 
backbone of face-to-face business events. 99 percent of business events 
companies have fewer than 500 employees, while 90 percent have fewer 
than 20 employees. Additionally, of the 1.7 million exhibitors that 
rely on our events to get their products and services in the hands of 
buyers, 80 percent of them are small businesses. Notably, 46 percent of 
small businesses participate in at least one trade or consumer show 
each year.
    As you know, our industry has been impacted by the pandemic. The 
Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) recently reported that 
the business-to-business exhibition portion of the industry alone 
shrunk by 80 percent in 2020. CEIR further found that nearly all 2020 
activity occurred before shutdowns began in March, with year-over-year 
activity in the second quarter down 100 percent, third quarter activity 
down 98 percent, and fourth quarter activity down also 98 percent.
    We are grateful that Nevada and Florida are among the handful of 
states that have been proactive in getting people back to work through 
the safe delivery of exhibitions, conferences, trade shows, and other 
in-person events. In response, we have been ready with safeguards 
enabling a safe reopening for all involved. Last year, our industry set 
forth the All Secure Guidelines that have raised the bar on safe, 
hygienic, productive, and high-quality organized face-to-face event 
experiences. The recent delivery of three co-located fashion events in 
Orlando, Florida shows our collective ability to safely deliver 
business events with the enforcement of protocols that prevent against 
the spread of COVID-19. Additionally, many of the facilities we 
represent have received Global Biorisk Advisory Council STAR 
Accreditation, which ensures that they are maintaining the highest 
standards for cleaning and disinfection.
    That said, with planning and expenses beginning a year or more in 
advance of business events taking place, our industry faces significant 
challenges in fully restarting this important growth engine that drives 
commerce and innovation in every state across the Nation. This is why 
ECA enthusiastically supports S.477, the Hospitality and Commerce Job 
Recovery Act to provide comprehensive relief and recovery to the face-
to-face business events sector, as well as the broader tourism and 
hospitality industry.
    Importantly, Section 2 of the bill establishes a tax credit to 
support the convention and trade show industry. To stimulate 
participation by both individuals and providers, this bill would create 
a much-needed general business credit (or a refundable payroll tax 
credit for nonprofit organizations) to help offset the cost of hosting 
or participating in a convention, business meeting, or trade show in 
the United States from 2022-2024. More specifically, the convention and 
trade show restart credit would be equal to 50 percent of the qualified 
participation costs paid or incurred by the individual, and 100 percent 
of the qualified restart costs paid or incurred by an eligible 
provider.
    For our industry, these incentives would help ensure a vibrant 
marketplace of buyers and sellers at safely-delivered face-to-face 
business events beginning next year to help jumpstart the economy and 
support the many small businesses that rely on these events. 
Importantly, for providers, qualified restart costs would include costs 
associated with reopening facilities designed for conventions, business 
meetings, and trade shows including renovation, remediation, personal 
protective equipment, cleaning, testing, and labor cost associated with 
preventing the spread of COVID-19.
    As our Nation begins to emerge from the pandemic, it is clear that 
the economy will not be able to fully recover without targeted support 
to address the unique economic challenges inflicted on the face-to-face 
business events industry--and industry that, before the pandemic, had 
long been a reliable source of economic growth and jobs in communities 
across the country. This is why, on behalf of ECA and our partner 
organizations, we ask you to support swift enactment of the S.477, the 
Hospitality and Commerce Job Recovery Act to provide a targeted, yet 
comprehensive way to support the industry and bring back the jobs that 
have been lost over the past year as soon as possible.
    If you have any questions or would like additional information, 
please feel free to contact Thomas F. (Tommy) Goodwin, ECA's Vice 
President, Government Relations, at (703) 672-0780 or 
[email protected]. Thank you for your support and commitment 
to a vibrant face-to-face business events sector as we emerge from the 
pandemic.
            Sincerely,
                                             David Audrain,
                                                      Co-president.
                        David DuBois, CMP, CAE, FASAE, CTA,
                                                      Co-president.
                                 ______
                                 
                       American Hotel & Lodging Association
                                                     April 13, 2021

Hon. Jacky Rosen,
Chair,
Subcommittee on Tourism, Trade, and Export Promotion,
United States Senate.
Washington, DC.
Hon. Rick Scott,
Ranking Member,
Subcommittee on Tourism, Trade, and Export Promotion,
United States Senate,
Washington, DC.

Dear Chair Rosen and Ranking Member Scott,

    On behalf of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), we 
thank you for your steadfast leadership during this extremely 
challenging period for our Nation. Your efforts in Congress guiding our 
Nation through this unprecedented health and economic crisis continue 
to be critical to the recovery of the hotel and tourism industry. 
Relief programs, such as the Paycheck Protection Program, provided a 
crucial lifeline to struggling hotel businesses but more help is 
needed. As you examine the devastating economic impacts of the pandemic 
on the tourism and hospitality industry, we ask that you continue your 
work with your colleagues in Congress to provide necessary further 
relief to the hotel industry and our workforce and provide incentives 
to spur travel as the economy begins to reopen.
    AHLA is the sole national association representing all segments of 
the U.S. lodging industry, including hotel owners, real estate 
investment trusts (REITs), chains, franchisees, management companies, 
independent properties, bed & breakfasts, state hotel associations, and 
industry suppliers. The industry is comprised of more than 57,000 
properties, supports $1.1 trillion in U.S. sales, and generates nearly 
$170 billion in taxes to local, state and Federal governments. 
Importantly, small businesses make up sixty-one percent of the 
industry, and nearly half of hotels in the United States are minority 
owned.
    The hotel industry workforce has been uniquely devastated by the 
COVID-19 health crisis. Prior to the pandemic, the industry supported 8 
million jobs, providing $75 billion in wages and salaries to our 
associates. For example, a typical hotel supports more than 250 jobs in 
its local community. Moreover, hotels provide workers with 
opportunities for lifelong careers, upward mobility, fast-tracked 
promotions, and workplace flexibility. Many of these jobs have been 
lost or put at risk because of the pandemic.

   According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) the 
        leisure and hospitality sector employed 3.1 million fewer 
        workers in March 2020 compared to before the pandemic.

   The accommodations sector specifically has a 19.9 percent 
        unemployment rate, compared to the national average of 6.7 
        percent. It is estimated that over the last year, the industry 
        has lost ten years of job growth.

   Leisure and hospitality account for 37 percent of all jobs 
        lost since the onset of the pandemic--more than any other 
        sector, and hotels are not projected to return to pre-pandemic 
        levels until 2024 at the earliest.

    The economic impact to our industry is equally as dramatic, with 
industry occupancy and revenues at record lows and not projected to 
recover before 2024. Thousands of hotels across the country remain 
shuttered or operating at extremely limited levels, with ruinous 
consequences for jobs and the local communities our members support.
    Hotels are a vital component of our Nation's economy, supporting 
millions of jobs, generating billions in tax dollars, and providing 
critical infrastructure to allow leisure, business, and government 
travel to function. The hotel industry is focused on safely welcoming 
guests back and has widely implemented AHLA's Safe Stay program to 
accomplish that goal. We look forward to the eventual return of travel. 
However, without further relief and support, the tourism and travel 
industry faces permanent scarring and a protracted recovery. AHLA 
appreciates the opportunity to provide these comments and is grateful 
for your work in supporting the recovery of our vibrant industry.
            Sincerely,
                                            Brian Crawford,
                    Executive Vice President of Government Affairs.
                                 ______
                                 
           Prepard Statement of the American Bus Association
    The private motorcoach industry is a vital component of the 
national public transportation network, providing intercity scheduled 
bus service, commuter and shuttle operations, school bus 
transportation, charter, tour and entertainment services, and in some 
cases contracted services for public transit authorities, airlines, and 
Amtrak. These same companies bring entertainers to performance venues 
and bring fans to concerts and events.
    All sectors of the motorcoach industry provide vital transportation 
services to the larger national transportation network. The motorcoach 
industry also provides sustainable employment for hundreds of thousands 
of workers, both directly and indirectly. The motorcoach industry also 
serves this country in times of crisis, moving people out of harm's 
way, such as evacuating citizens during hurricanes and wildfires, and 
serving as component of our national defense by moving our military and 
their equipment for training and deployment and protecting critical 
infrastructure.
    Prior to COVID-19, the private motorcoach industry provided nearly 
600 million passenger trips annually--nearly as many as the U.S. 
passenger airlines--and was comprised of 2,800 companies, mostly small, 
diverse, family-owned businesses, operating 36,000 motorcoaches. The 
industry directly employed nearly 100,000 people and generated $15 
billion in sales. When looking at the total economic impact of 
motorcoach and group tour activities, it exceeds $200 billion in direct 
and indirect economic activity nationwide and supports an additional 2 
million jobs.
    Today, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry is devastated. It 
is operating at less than 20 percent of its 2019 levels, with a very 
slow recovery expected. While there was limited relief for the industry 
in the December COVID-relief package, those funds have not to date been 
released by the Treasury Department, have to be shared once released 
with school bus companies and private passenger ferries, and are widely 
expected to be over-subscribed. As of now, the motorcoach industry has 
received no specific sector-wide relief and has been largely overlooked 
in terms of its critical role in the Nation's transportation network, 
including its travel and tourism role. This is so despite the fact that 
the industry serves as an economic engine that supports hotels, tourist 
destinations, conventions and other business and pleasure travel needs.
    As a result of COVID-19 between 600--800 motorcoach companies (a 
quarter of the industry) no longer have operating authority from the 
U.S. Department of Transportation, meaning they have ceased operating 
or have closed their doors forever. As many as 80,000 workers remain 
idled. Banks are repossessing motorcoaches from these family 
businesses.
    In short, the motorcoach industry, which has been at the center of 
the COVID-19 ``storm,'' has also been brought to its knees. It has 
suffered huge losses due to the cancellation of entertainment events, 
including concerts, tours, and theatrical productions; the cancellation 
of group travel, high school and college sports; and the cancellation 
of any number of other events. It has also suffered because commuters 
are not going to offices and business travelers generally are staying 
home. All of these consequences of the pandemic have led to the dire 
situation the industry is now in.
    The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), although well-intentioned, 
reached less than one-third of the industry and only provided short-
term assistance. The PPP money was quickly spent to bring employees 
back although there was no possible work, and the PPP program provided 
no relief from the burdens associated with the capital-intensive nature 
of the industry. The Main Street Lending Program, also well-
intentioned, was delayed in implementation and the requirements are too 
steep for most struggling companies seeking a lifeline for survival. At 
this point, additional targeted financial assistance to bridge the 
industry through this crisis is essential for it to survive and restore 
the services that travelers need to get to tourist and other 
destinations and to be transported to venues once they are there.
    Without additional targeted funding to serve as a lifeline to the 
motorcoach industry, the entire travel and tourism industry and many of 
the destinations, including large ones like Las Vegas and Orlando, and 
many smaller such tourist destinations across the United States that 
also depend heavily on the motorcoach sector, will suffer. The nation's 
airlines have appropriately received such a lifeline; the motorcoach 
industry deserves no less.

    Senator Rosen. This hearing record, the hearing record will 
remain open for two weeks until Tuesday, April 27, 2021. Any 
Senators that would like to submit questions for the record 
should do so by Tuesday, April 27, 2021. For those of you who 
testified today, we ask that your responses be returned to the 
Committee as quickly as possible, and in no case later than two 
weeks after receipt. That concludes today's inaugural hearing.
    [Whereupon, at 4:45 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]

                            A P P E N D I X

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

         Prepared Statement of the Travel Management Coalition
    Dear Chair Rosen and Ranking Member Scott:

    Thank you for your leadership in seeking to identify and craft 
policy solutions that would serve to bolster our Nation's travel 
industry. As you are aware, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impose 
unprecedented levels of economic disruption across the travel sector. 
Congress has taken steps to address this by, for example, appropriating 
$42 billion to aid the workforce of passenger airlines and their 
contractors. Critically, although the CARES Act authorized the 
Department of Treasury to extend loans to ticket agents and others 
dependent upon aviation, the Section 4003(b)(1) program failed to meet 
the needs of many eligible businesses, due to strict lending 
requirements. Many businesses critical to the restart of travel, 
including travel management companies (TMCs), have therefore received 
minimal support throughout the pandemic, despite experiencing 95 
percent declines in certain markets. For example, large TMCs did not 
qualify for any grant amounts (airlines) or forgivable loan amounts 
(PPP) like many other severely distressed businesses in our industry 
did.
    Our Travel Management Coalition--made up of large TMCs that help 
businesses and individuals manage complex global travel needs--believe 
that risk-based, data-driven policy solutions are needed to ensure the 
viability of the $2.6 trillion travel industry. Specifically, Congress 
should work with President Biden's Administration to:

   Maintain the inbound international testing mandate, face 
        mask requirement, and other key COVID-19 mitigation measures, 
        which preclude the need for mandatory quarantines;

   Lift indefinite Section 212(f) countrywide travel bans and 
        blanket quarantine requirements in favor of risk-based 
        benchmarks that would allow for a safe, managed return to 
        travel as more people are vaccinated and the pandemic is 
        brought further under control;

   Exempt fully-vaccinated travelers from international testing 
        requirements;

   Facilitate an effective rollout of private sector-driven 
        digital health credentials for vaccine and testing 
        verification; and

   Ensure liquidity for the travel sector by expanding 
        qualifications for existing programs and providing new, 
        targeted relief programs to support all TMCs and other 
        businesses critical to the restart of travel.

    Since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. air travel 
industry has worked closely with the Federal government to formulate 
and implement an array of public health protocols to ensure the safety 
of the air travel experience. By applying an extensive, multi-layered 
set of biosafety measures, including enhanced cleaning, optimized 
ventilation, and masking requirements, the risk of COVID-19 
transmission has been reduced to the extent that the World Health 
Organization (WHO) has acknowledged that air travel is safe, a 
conclusion supported by Department of Defense research. Moreover, TMCs 
and other aviation industry leaders continue to pursue Federal policy 
that will reduce the human and economic cost of COVID-19, which is why 
we have persistently advocated for mask mandates and international 
testing requirements supported by a standardized, electronic-based 
verification framework.
    Meanwhile, largely-unenforceable quarantine measures in the U.S. 
continue to impede travel industry recovery, as they run counter to the 
purpose of business and leisure travel. These blanket quarantines are 
in place, despite the WHO's recommendation that asymptomatic travelers 
should self-monitor for symptoms, rather than be required to undergo 
quarantine, and CDC's acknowledgement that fully-vaccinated travelers 
do not need to self-quarantine.
    Countrywide travel restrictions were an effective tool to curb the 
early spread of the pandemic, but they, like quarantines, are far too 
blunt an instrument now that COVID-19 test and vaccine accessibility is 
rapidly expanding worldwide. The bright line rule between banned travel 
from regions like the European Union and allowed travel has often 
failed to prevent people coming to the U.S. from at-risk areas. For 
example, on March 6, 2021, a traveler could fly to the U.S. from Chile, 
where there were 1,644 new COVID-19 cases per million people confirmed 
that day, but one would generally be unable to travel here from Norway, 
where just 67 new cases per million people were reported (per Johns 
Hopkins University CSSE COVID-19 Data).
    To be clear, we do not expect all quarantine and travel 
restrictions to be lifted tomorrow, but the Federal government should 
have a transparent plan in place to lift these restrictions once 
established benchmarks are achieved. The Federal government has 
endorsed states' phased-reopening policies for restaurants, gyms, and 
other businesses. In the same light, Congress must work with the 
Administration to formulate benchmarks that would allow for the gradual 
restart of travel as more people are vaccinated and the pandemic is 
brought further under control. The status quo of indefinite 
restrictions and ad-hoc decision-making is exacerbating our industry's 
financial plight and the job security of our workforce.
    Another crucial next step towards recovery is exempting vaccinated 
individuals from international testing requirements, while avoiding 
vaccine requirements as a prerequisite to travel. This policy shift 
would align with the CDC's guidance on domestic travel stating that, 
``[f]ully vaccinated travelers do not need to get tested before or 
after travel. . .''
    Furthermore, the future of air travel depends on the ability of 
governments to confidently determine the COVID-19 health status of 
travelers, which is why countries around the world are adopting digital 
health credentials in lieu of exploitable paper certificates. Since 
they rely on accredited labs, digital health credentials add confidence 
to the integrity of travelers' test results. Notably, a recent survey 
found that just over 9 in 10 international travelers would be 
comfortable using digital health credentials for their next trip. These 
tools will be essential to global economic recovery, so long as 
Congress and the Administration work with the private sector to develop 
interoperable standards to address verification, equity, and privacy 
concerns.
    Lastly, in recognition of the pandemic's devastating impact on 
travel--particularly business travel, an industry essential to the safe 
restart of travel and the broader economy--Congress must ensure that 
TMCs and other air travel industry leaders obtain the financial relief 
needed to overcome this crisis. In particular, Congress should utilize 
unused CARES Act funds to expand the eligibility of PPP to uniquely 
impacted businesses, like large TMCs, that maintain more than 500 
employees, and create new, targeted grant programs for the most 
impacted sectors.
    We hope you will look to our Coalition to provide input as you 
consider policy solutions to revive travel. We stand ready to assist 
you in any way we can.
                                 ______
                                 
    Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Jacky Rosen to 
                               Steve Hill
    National Tourism Strategy. The Federal government last developed a 
National Travel and Tourism Strategy before the outbreak of COVID-19. 
Since then, the world has changed, and it's time for a new, coordinated 
approach to reviving the industry.

    Question 1. Thinking about the needs of our Nation's hotels, 
conventions, and their workers in the wake of COVID, what priorities do 
you think the Department of Commerce should address in a new National 
Travel and Tourism Strategy to help the industry recover?
    Answer. A new National Travel and Tourism Strategy should include a 
global framework toward reopening international borders, particularly 
with low risk countries; and should include plans to add more countries 
as they become safer. The absence of robust international travel is 
felt most acutely in the convention and trade show industry, and if 
current border entry restrictions remain, the U.S. is projected to lose 
an additional $175 Billion in travel and tourism by the end of this 
year \1\.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ US Travel Association
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    A new strategy should also aim to support a positive travel 
sentiment among Americans. Wide availability and rapid administration 
of vaccines to encourage greater penetration among the U.S. population 
is paramount. Highlighting vaccine efficacy to increase confidence in 
the vaccine will allow for guidelines such as an increase in capacity 
limits and a decrease in social distancing to be encouraged within the 
strategy.
    Finally, for both international and domestic travel, going to 
contactless TSA checkpoints using biometric screening would ensure the 
safety of TSA employees, while also providing for the safety of air 
travelers. Promoting broader use of these automated tools across the 
country would also be helpful within a new strategy. These techniques 
have been piloted at Reagan National and Wayne County airports.

    Question 2. Mr. Hill, how do you foresee the trade show industry 
and convention centers adapting to increase consumer confidence in 
business travel? What strategies are in places to increase the number 
of conventions held in places like Las Vegas, and how do you see the 
convention economy recovering? What can Congress do to help support 
this return?
    Answer. In 2019 total economic impacts from the Las Vegas 
convention segment included 43,000 jobs, $3.1B in wages and salaries 
with an overall $11.4B total economic input. To once again achieve 
those numbers, or better yet, surpass them, the convention and trade 
show industry must adapt to increase traveler confidence and ensure a 
safe experience for convention goers.
    It is imperative industry stakeholders meet the challenge of 
updating their safety infrastructure to include enhanced health 
safeguards such as screenings, strict cleanings and social-distancing 
rules help to keep convention goers at ease. The Las Vegas Convention 
and Visitors Authority has taken several steps to improve air 
filtration and ventilation throughout the convention center campus such 
as increasing total airflow supply and the percentage of circulated 
outdoor air, per CDC recommendations. We were recently awarded the 
Global Biorisk Advisory Council, GBAC-STAR facility accreditation from 
the Worldwide Cleaning Industry Association. This is the gold standard 
for safe facilities and ensures we have gone above and beyond to 
address visitor and employee safety aligned with not only state and 
local directives, but with emerging global standards.
    Congress can support recent legislation that has been introduced 
which will be of great benefit to the convention and trade show 
industry. Passage of the Hospitality and Commerce Job Recovery Act, a 
bipartisan bill sponsored by Senators Cortez Masto and Kramer would 
support the convention and trade show industries by establishing a tax 
credit for the cost of attending or hosting a convention, business 
meeting, or trade show in the U.S. This legislation will be significant 
in driving travel demand and has the potential of creating 1.5 Million 
jobs and approximately $600 Billion in economic output.
    In addition, supporting the passage of the TRAVEL (Transportation 
Resources to Add Vital Economic Longevity) Act sponsored by Senator 
Cortez Masto would ensure federal, state, and local governments are 
taking travel and tourism needs into account within their 
transportation plans, helping to boost economies like Nevada's that 
have been hit especially hard due to pandemic related travel and 
tourism restrictions.

    TRAVEL PROMOTION STRATEGIES: Travel Promotion Strategies. Travel 
promotion remains critical for highlighting potential travel 
destinations to domestic and international visitors. The LVCVA has 
implemented successful and iconic marketing campaigns like ``What 
Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas'', ``What Happens Here, Only Happens 
Here'', and ``Why Vegas'' to highlight Las Vegas as a central 
destination for a vacation and business travel.

    Question 3. As more and more Americans get vaccinated and start 
traveling again, can you speak about how you foresee future marketing 
campaigns? What should other direct marketing organizations around the 
country be considering as they develop their travel promotion 
strategies, particularly given a more reluctant traveling public?
    Answer. Like all marketing efforts, the key is to be creative and 
nimble in responding to and forecasting consumer demand and market 
needs. The world is different as a result of the pandemic and marketing 
campaigns must rise to the occasion, acknowledging the need to 
incentivize safe travel. Targeted marketing efforts to encourage 
corporate business travel, associations, and other group segments will 
help drive exhibitor and attendee attendance.
    Connecting marketing campaigns with other industry stakeholders is 
also wise. As airlines plan future flight schedules and aim to optimize 
their profitability, destination marketing organizations (DMO) will 
need to find ways to stay competitive and help incentivize flights in 
and out of their respective destinations.
    Further, DMOs are integral parts of their local communities and 
should continue to explore avenues to actively participate in the 
COVID-19 response. Partnership with local, regional, and state leaders 
will be critical for any DMO to manage their recovery strategies.
                                 ______
                                 
    Response to Written Question Submitted by Hon. Dan Sullivan to 
                               Steve Hill
    Question. Last week a report was issued on the economic impacts the 
cancellation of last year's cruise ship season had on Alaska. The 
report estimated the loss annual loss to Alaska exceeds $1.6 billion, 
and predicts that a two-season impact could exceed $3.3 billion.
    Business meetings have been a significant contributor to the cruise 
industry and to Alaska's state economy. It appears there will be a 
significant lag before business meetings, conventions and trade shows 
rebound following the pandemic.
    What can Congress do to help jumpstart the business meeting, trade 
show and convention industries?
    Answer. Restoring international inbound travel will be essential 
toward reactivating convention and business travel. Congress should 
look to partner with the CDC and local health agencies to create 
sensible Federal guidelines for international travelers which would 
allow for freer travel while maintaining safety. Recent CDC decisions 
signaling a decreasing need for mask wearing as a result of greater 
vaccine penetration are helpful toward incentivizing more travel. The 
industry needs the consistent support of Congress toward increased 
vaccine availability and messaging to increase confidence in vaccine 
efficacy.
    Passage of the Hospitality and Commerce Job Recovery Act, a 
bipartisan bill sponsored by Senators Cortez-Masto and Kramer would 
support the convention and trade show industries by establishing a tax 
credit for the cost of attending or hosting a convention, business 
meeting, or trade show in the U.S. This legislation will be significant 
in driving travel demand and has the potential of creating 1.5 Million 
jobs and approximately $600 Billion in economic output.
    We would also appreciate Congress providing funding in support of 
Brand USA, a public-private partnership that enhances tourism and job 
creation across the country through global marketing. Brand USA has 
helped to bring 7.5 Million international visitors to the U.S., 
generating a total economic impact of $55 Billion, and supporting over 
52,000 jobs annually. Like many in the travel and tourism industry, 
Brand USA has suffered financially through the pandemic and an infusion 
of Federal funding to will assist them in their vital role toward 
restoring visitor volume and jobs.
    Finally, showing confidence in the American tourism industry and 
our current practice of enhanced health safeguards such as updated HVAC 
systems, coupled with widespread COVID-19 vaccine penetration will help 
restore faith for American businesses that it is safe and appropriate 
to begin business travel once again.
                                 ______
                                 
    Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Jacky Rosen to 
                              Jorge Perez
    National Tourism Strategy. The Federal government last developed a 
National Travel and Tourism Strategy before the outbreak of COVID-19. 
Since then, the world has changed, and it's time for a new, coordinated 
approach to reviving the industry.

    Question 1. Thinking about the needs of our Nation's hotels, 
conventions, and their workers in the wake of COVID, what priorities do 
you think the Department of Commerce should address in a new National 
Travel and Tourism Strategy to help the industry recover?
    Answer. The travel and tourism industry is a pillar of the American 
economy. While the industry is beginning to see signs of recovery, full 
economic recovery of the industry is not expected to return until 2025 
\1\. A coordinated National Travel and Tourism Strategy with the travel 
and tourism industry is important for a full and speedy recovery.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ U.S. Travel
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    As travelers become more conscious of safe and alternative ways to 
travel, the Department of Commerce and the National Travel and Tourism 
Strategy must work to promote safe, high-quality, and unique tourism 
experiences. The Department of Commerce should focus on the 
infrastructure needed to support and drive such demand, including 
modernized and efficient ways to travel by air, rail, and road, which 
could include technological advances in check-in procedures at ports of 
entry and electronic vehicle charging stations near active roadways.
    In addition, international travel spending suffered the sharpest 
decline in 2020, falling 76 percent from 2019 levels \2\. The U.S. 
travel and tourism industry suffered a loss of $766 billion last year 
in direct, indirect, and induced impacts \3\. As states reopen, the 
U.S. needs to examine reopening our borders to tourism and welcoming 
back our international visitors.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\ U.S. Travel
    \3\ World Travel and Tourism Council

    Past and Future Relief for Restaurants and Hotels. Like our hotels, 
Nevada's restaurants have been struggling due to the COVID-19 slowdown 
in travel and tourism. According to a recent report conducted by the 
National Restaurant Association, sixty-two percent of fine-dining 
operators and fifty-four percent of family dining and casual dining 
operators say that staffing levels remain twenty percent below the pre-
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pandemic average.

    Question 2. Which type of relief, such as PPP, EIDL, and the 
Employee Retention Tax Credit, was the most helpful with keeping hotels 
and resorts afloat?
    Answer. The coronavirus pandemic continues to be a devastating 
health crisis that has caused severe economic impacts throughout the 
world. The Las Vegas Strip went dark for the first time in its history, 
with resorts, casinos, hotels, and other businesses closing 
indefinitely in March 2020. Actions taken by Congress to provide relief 
to the travel and tourism industry provided much needed relief to many 
throughout the industry. Our small business partners have been able to 
stay in business through programs such as the Paycheck Protection 
Program. Communities have benefited from extended unemployment 
insurance benefits and economic injury disaster loans. MGM Resorts was 
aided in our efforts to provide extended health care benefits to our 
employees and their families through the Employee Retention Tax Credit.
    As our country continues to recover, I urge Congress to consider 
policy priorities for the travel and tourism industry, including the 
bipartisan Hospitality and Commerce Job Recovery Act of 2021 which 
provides individual tax credits to stimulate nonbusiness travel, 
restores the entertainment business expense deduction, and would 
provide tax relief for restaurants and food beverage companies. 
Additionally, it would assist another vital part of the travel economy 
through tax credits associated with reopening facilities for convention 
and trade shows, including renovation, remediation, PPE, cleaning, 
testing, and other associated labor costs.
                                 ______
                                 
    Response to Written Question Submitted by Hon. Dan Sullivan to 
                              Jorge Perez
    Question. Last week a report was issued on the economic impacts the 
cancellation of last year's cruise ship season had on Alaska. The 
report estimated the loss annual loss to Alaska exceeds $1.6 billion, 
and predicts that a two-season impact could exceed $3.3 billion.
    Business meetings have been a significant contributor to the cruise 
industry and to Alaska's state economy. It appears there will be a 
significant lag before business meetings, conventions and trade shows 
rebound following the pandemic.
    What can Congress do to help jumpstart the business meeting, trade 
show and convention industries?
    Answer. While the tourism industry is beginning to see signs of 
recovery, full economic recovery of the industry is not expected to 
return until 20251. Business travel is forecasted to be down 85 percent 
through the beginning of 2021, and then only begin increasing slightly. 
Congress has helped the industry stay afloat through various programs 
such as the Employee Retention Tax Credit and the Paycheck Protection 
Program. Congress can continue to help recovery by passing measures 
such as those included in the Hospitality and Commerce Job Recovery 
Act, which includes incentives for business travel such as tax credits 
for the cost of attending or hosting a trade show or convention, and 
for qualified restart costs for venues hosting business meetings, trade 
shows, and conventions, to ensure such events are hosted safely. The 
travel industry has been one of the hardest hit industries as a result 
of COVID-19 and we look forward to working with Congress to support 
measures that encourage both leisure and business travel.
                                 ______
                                 
    Response to Written Question Submitted by Hon. Dan Sullivan to 
                          Tori Emerson Barnes
    Question. Last week a report was issued on the economic impacts the 
cancellation of last year's cruise ship season had on Alaska. The 
report estimated the loss annual loss to Alaska exceeds $1.6 billion, 
and predicts that a two-season impact could exceed $3.3 billion.
    Business meetings have been a significant contributor to the cruise 
industry and to Alaska's state economy. It appears there will be a 
significant lag before business meetings, conventions and trade shows 
rebound following the pandemic.
    What can Congress do to help jumpstart the business meeting, trade 
show and convention industries?
    Answer. Thank you for the question. Business travel spending in the 
U.S. fell from $348 billion in 2019 to just $103 billion in 2020--a 70 
percent decline. General business travel spending declined by 66 
percent while conferences, conventions, and trade show spending 
declined by 77 percent. In Alaska, business travel went from $420 
million in 2019 to $110 million in 2020, a 74 percent loss. While some 
states and businesses across the country are reopening, business travel 
remains constrained by overly broad State and local restrictions on 
large gatherings that don't take into account industry standards and 
practices that are known to be effective against the spread of COVID-19 
and can allow business meetings and events to safely resume.
    There are two specific things Congress could do to help revive 
business meetings and events. First, Congress should call on the CDC to 
promptly provide guidance for the safe return of professional meetings 
and events (PMEs)--guidance that acknowledges the controlled 
environment in which they occur. PMEs are tightly supervised, involving 
months of planning and preparation. They allow for a more reliable 
application of health and safety measures than social gatherings and 
large public events, and therefore should have specialized guidance. 
Furthermore, such guidance should be adaptable to changing dynamics on 
the ground, in accordance with the recommendations of the CDC's own 
COVID-19 Response Team:

        Often, decisions made with the intent to reduce the disease 
        burden during a pandemic are made with incomplete information. 
        Effectiveness of mitigation strategies and adoption of 
        recommended behaviors must be continually reevaluated 
        throughout the pandemic, even as vaccination continues, and 
        prevention strategies must be adapted to the current situation 
        and local context, informed by local data, such as case control 
        investigations.

    Identifying COVID-19 Risk Through Observational Studies to Inform 
Control Measures (pg. 1-2)Static risk controls divorced from new 
information, evolving conditions on the ground, or general community 
needs not only become less effective over time but can also hurt the 
communities they're meant to serve.
    Second, Congress should pass the Hospitality and Commerce Jobs 
Recovery Act (S. 477). The bill contains targeted incentives to 
encourage businesses to reengage in contracting and planning business 
meetings and events. The bill also includes tax breaks to help meeting 
venues cover the cost of health and safety investments, as well as tax 
incentives to encourage low-and moderate-income Americans to resume 
travel planning. According to Tourism Economics, business travel 
spending will take an estimated four years to recover to pre-pandemic 
levels, which would be a significant drag on rehiring in the travel 
industry. S. 477, if enacted, will significantly accelerate the pace of 
recovery in the travel industry, generating close to $600 billion in 
economic activity that wouldn't have otherwise occurred, producing 1.5 
million net new jobs, and shortening the recovery timeline to just 3 
years.
    Having lost over a year of business to the pandemic, it's important 
to quickly put these measures in place to allow for the safe return of 
business meetings and events and help restore travel demand across the 
country.
    Thank you for your question.
                                 ______
                                 
    Response to Written Question Submitted by Hon. Dan Sullivan to 
                             Carol B. Dover
    Question. Last week a report was issued on the economic impacts the 
cancellation of last year's cruise ship season had on Alaska. The 
report estimated the loss annual loss to Alaska exceeds $1.6 billion, 
and predicts that a two-season impact could exceed $3.3 billion.
    Business meetings have been a significant contributor to the cruise 
industry and to Alaska's state economy. It appears there will be a 
significant lag before business meetings, conventions and trade shows 
rebound following the pandemic.
    What can Congress do to help jumpstart the business meeting, trade 
show and convention industries?
    Answer. Thank you for the opportunity to address this question. 
Business travel, trade shows, and conventions significantly contribute 
to the success of Florida's hotels and restaurants, as well as to the 
overall state economy. Business travel remains down 85 percent, and 
large events and conventions have yet to come back. Here are a few 
things Congress could do to support the business meeting, trade show, 
and convention industries.
    First, they could increase tax breaks for business travel and 
expenses.
    A second option would be to subsidize airlines and rental cars to 
reduce fares and rates, making travel more economical to consumers. 
Rental car prices have soared and airline tickets, once at their 
cheapest levels in recent history, have increased to--in some cases--
higher than pre-pandemic.
    A third option would be to raise the travel reimbursement and 
expense limitations for government employee travel.
    As referenced in the question, cruises also significantly impact 
Florida's tourism and business sectors, and we need to get our cruises 
operating again. Data released from the Cruise Lines International 
Association shows that Florida accounted for more than 60 percent of 
all passenger embarkations in the U.S. in 2019. Florida businesses 
received more than $9 billion in direct expenditures, which generated 
total economic impacts of nearly 160,000 jobs and over $8 billion in 
statewide income.
    Another potential option that might help in national recovery would 
be Federal or national COVID-19 liability protections for businesses 
acting responsibly. We passed this important legislation for Florida 
businesses, but many of our conference and other visitors are from out 
of state.

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