MICE Conversations: a podcast for the Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conferences and Events industry
MICE Conversations: a podcast for the Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conferences and Events industry
#11: 'MICE Conversations' - Roger Dow, President & CEO, U.S. Travel Association
'MICE Conversations'. In this episode I talk with Roger Dow, President & CEO, U.S. Travel Association, the Washington, D.C. - based organization representing all segments of travel in America. U.S. Travel’s mission is to increase travel to and within the United States. Prior to joining U.S. Travel in 2005, Dow spent 34 years at Marriott International, rising to senior vice president of global and field sales.
More about Roger Dow and the U.S. Travel Association.
https://www.ustravel.org/profile/roger-dow
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogerdow/
https://twitter.com/USTravel
Recorded Friday 9th July 2021.
This pocast is also available as a video, on the TravelMedia.ie YouTube channel.
https://youtu.be/axC7Wd69ByA
Topics and questions, timeline or video chapters.
00:00 - Intro and welcome.
00:39 - Has travel re-opened smoothly in the US?
01:50 - When will the US open up again to travel from Europe?
03:27 - MICE. What is happening in the US right now?
05:06 - What are the protocols for meetings and events taking place in the US?
06:12 - Has the US travel industry changed, post-pandemic?
08:28 - Has anything good come from the pandemic?
10:32 - US travel trends, e.g. bubble tours, rural v urban, sustainable etc?
12:43 - Communications challenge.
14:18 - Experiences v destinations.
15:32 - Vaccine passports.
18:03 - Follow the science.
19:05 - Connectivity.
20:50 - A positive or pessimistic future for travel?
21:56 - Time for positive messaging from media, gov and the industry.
22:07 - Outro and thank you.
About the MICE Meetup Dublin
https://www.travelmedia.ie/mice-meetup-dublin/
Audio transcript:
- So hello and welcome to another session of MICE Conversations. My name is Michael Collins from TravelMedia.ie. And today I am delighted to be joined by Roger Dow, who is President and CEO of U.S. Travel Association. Roger you're very welcome. Thank you for joining us.
- Well, it's always good to be with you, Michael. I'm sad that it's virtual. I much more enjoy having a beer with you in person.
- I agree a hundred percent. Well, hopefully this is a, I think we're getting towards the end of this virtual world and things are opening up very shortly. So it's an opportune time for us to be talking. I wonder, obviously I'm based in Europe and most of our audience here is based in Europe. So I wonder if you might set the scene for us in terms of what's happening in the U.S. at the moment. Obviously it's mid July, 2021, summer season is up and running and I'm intrigued to know how are things going in the U.S. as in, we know travel is happening in the U.S., but I want to know, are there hiccups? Are there delays? Are there issues at airports with queues, et cetera, or is it running very smoothly?
- Actually it is running quite smoothly. The domestic leisure market has come back extremely strong. In fact, we had a holiday weekend a couple of weeks ago, and basically they had the highest number of people that weekend, 10 million, to go through TSA. Since January, 200 million Americans have flown. And the interesting thing is despite all the talk, we cannot find one case where someone has said, "I got on a plane and I got COVID." So it's come back. Now, we're having some worker shortages, which is a problem which hopefully we'll address soon. So TSA has moved through a little more slowly than usual, but we hope to see that up and going very smoothly when we open up into international.
- Well, that's great to hear because one of the concerns here in Europe and in Ireland in particular is the fact that, there is talk of there being delays and the additional paperwork that's required for travel. So it's great to hear that things are moving smoothly in the U.S. Can we move to international travel? Because obviously that is very important..........
(bright upbeat music)- So hello and welcome to another session of MICE Conversations. My name is Michael Collins from TravelMedia.ie. And today I am delighted to be joined by Roger Dow, who is President and CEO of U.S. Travel Association. Roger you're very welcome. Thank you for joining us.- Well, it's always good to be with you, Michael. I'm sad that it's virtual. I much more enjoy having a beer with you in person.- I agree a hundred percent. Well, hopefully this is a, I think we're getting towards the end of this virtual world and things are opening up very shortly. So it's an opportune time for us to be talking. I wonder, obviously I'm based in Europe and most of our audience here is based in Europe. So I wonder if you might set the scene for us in terms of what's happening in the U.S. at the moment. Obviously it's mid July, 2021, summer season is up and running and I'm intrigued to know how are things going in the U.S. as in, we know travel is happening in the U.S., but I want to know, are there hiccups? Are there delays? Are there issues at airports with queues, et cetera, or is it running very smoothly?- Actually it is running quite smoothly. The domestic leisure market has come back extremely strong. In fact, we had a holiday weekend a couple of weeks ago, and basically they had the highest number of people that weekend, 10 million, to go through TSA. Since January, 200 million Americans have flown. And the interesting thing is despite all the talk, we cannot find one case where someone has said,"I got on a plane and I got COVID." So it's come back. Now, we're having some worker shortages, which is a problem which hopefully we'll address soon. So TSA has moved through a little more slowly than usual, but we hope to see that up and going very smoothly when we open up into international.- Well, that's great to hear because one of the concerns here in Europe and in Ireland in particular is the fact that, there is talk of there being delays and the additional paperwork that's required for travel. So it's great to hear that things are moving smoothly in the U.S. Can we move to international travel? Because obviously that is very important for both the U.S. and us here in Europe, and obviously transatlantic travel being key. And we know that things haven't opened up yet. What are your thoughts on when Europe and the U.S. will be able to travel freely again?- I hope it's very soon, later this summer. We've been working with our government and multiple agencies from transportation to Homeland Security, Commerce Department and the White House. And we're also working with the UK Government because what we're trying to do is open the coridor UK, U.S. Because our feeling is once that opens, the rest will follow very quickly. This is how life works. But the Delta variant delayed things a bit. We thought we'd have an announcement just prior to the G7 and then Boris Johnson put off any travel in UK till July, but that's right around the corner. So I'm hopeful we can get our governments to agree. The challenge we have, Michael, is the governments don't want to take much risk and they want everything perfect and perfect is the enemy of doing anything. You and I get in the car every day. We know there's accidents, but we're willing to take that risk because we know it's extraordinary small, and the same has to be with travel. We've got to go with the science and medicine and get the politics out of it.- Yeah, I agree a hundred percent. And I'm glad you used that example of the car. It's an example I use a lot is that life is not risk-free. Life is not perfect. And I sometimes wonder why during the COVID pandemic, we have decided to introduce this new concept of looking for a hundred percent guarantee that everything will be safe and life unfortunately is not safe. I asked you about the MICE industry. Here in Europe we've written off MICE for 2021. There's in reality, no business happening, and nobody trying to plan anything. The focus is on 2022. Is that same in the U.S.? Is the meetings industry going to take place in '22? Or is there still a bit of caution in the market?- We're seeing it begin to come back the past month or two. I've been at multiple meetings. MPI had their meeting in Las Vegas, and they had over a thousand people show up and we're having several meetings ourselves. And in fact, the numbers are larger than we expect. But the challenge we have is corporations allowing their people to travel, a reticence to travel. And the virtual world is going to be with us a little while. I expect the last quarter to be a good quarter, not a great quarter for MICE. And then I expect 2022 for it to begin coming back very strong and I think it will. I think, I don't agree with the procrastinators that say, procrastinators, say,"It's going to be '25." I think we're going to see a strong 2022. You can't replace face to face. You and I are okay doing this virtually because we know each other. If we didn't know each other, this would be a more awkward conversation.- Yeah. Agreed. And tell me, it's great to hear that there are events taking place in the U.S. already. And I think people will find comfort in that looking at what's happening. What are the protocols around those events that are taking place, the live events? Is there, still social distancing or is there a testing on top of that as well?- In many areas, one of the challenges we have Michael, is it varies from state to state. And that's one of the problems we have internationally. It varies from country to country. But right now, Las Vegas, for example, Las Vegas is wide open. They've done a way with distancing. They're allowing, full capacity. I am speaking to you right now from Florida where our Tampa hockey team won the Stanley Cup recently, and they had a full arena. Full. And so Florida has been wide open. California is starting to open, but I think we're to the point where California, New York and Nevada, two very important states have gone like Florida now and are open, allowing MICE meetings to open up full bore. But that was not the case a few months ago.- Okay, well, that's good to hear. But there are variances and different from state to state so worth noting that. In terms of how things will come back, I mean, we're aware that travel is opening again, but for you, has the industry changed? Has the travel industry changed? As in, we talk about, or we hear words such as sustainability and so on, and, do you think we're ever going to go back to where we were in 2019? Or do you think we all really have genuinely changed? I mean, I'm always, on the fence about this, sometimes I'm one view, then I'm the other, in terms of trying to actually decide, will we actually go back?'Cause I think there are people who just want to rush back as fast as they can and get business back to the levels. Or have we learned anything?- I think it's going to be a mixture of, it's going to come back more slowly. We're going to have this combination when it comes to MICE of live and virtual. Actually I think there's a, there is a silver lining here because we've learned to do virtual fairly well. I've been on virtual Zoom calls with up to 12,000 people. So I think the plus is going to be, is planners are going to be able to figure out how to extend their audience and how to get more people to attend. And those people will attend virtually and then say,"Hey, next year, I'm not gonna miss being there in person." I think it will come back a little slowly. There's hesitancy. But I think once people start sharing the word with their colleagues, that everything was safe, that they got much more out of the meeting, I think you're going to see a comeback. We've seen in the past that same thing happen. September 11th, they predicted no one would get on an international flight for decades to come.- Agree.- But British years of international travel. 2008, we had this monster recession. They said one third of the hotels would be closed, never to open again, followed by the 10 greatest years of travel from 2009, 2019. So I'm more of an optimist. I think it will come slowly, but I think you cannot replace face-to-face and the business that gets done in MICE meetings. It's not just about what you learn and adult education, but it's the products that are sold. If we don't have international buyers coming to U.S., are, we're not going to sell our computers, our factory equipment and our products. They'll go somewhere else and buy those products.- Yeah, I agree. Face-to-face is definitely, it's just, it's human nature. And I don't think you can change that. No matter what technology comes along, that won't change our instinct and on our, how we behave and interact as humans. Tell me, do you think anything good has come from the pandemic? Have we learned anything about ourselves and about the industry that we'll actually benefit from? I mean, I know the pandemic at a very base level has been a disaster for both industry, in particular travel and obviously for so many people who have been sick, but do you think we've learned anything that we'll come out of this better?- Yes, before I answer that, I'm going to go back to one part that you asked about. I think when travel does come back, it's going to be coming back quite differently than before. And we're going to see that. But what have we learned? The things that we've learned are one, technology has been in a position that we can do touchless very well. So I think one of the things you're going to see going forward is a much more rapid adoption of biometrics. There's the privacy issues, but I think we can get over that. Even opt in if you'd like. I mean, I'll give you my high school grades if I can get through, and they weren't very good, if I can get that through a line more quickly. So I think the touchless. Your mobile phone will check you into a hotel, actually probably even open your room. The way you'll pay your bills. I also think that people have, the standards of hygiene are, they've always been high, but they're much higher, that the air flow systems, all the things we've learned. The food service, I've seen outstanding food service. I've actually seen buffets come back, but come back in a different way with some plastic shields and servers giving you the food. But I think they're the kinds of things we've learned. And we've also learned that we have to learn to live with this just as everything else in the world. And I think that's a lesson that's slowly being learned, but I think we'll look back and say,"We were probably a bit more draconian"than we should have been on all the lockdowns"and shutdowns for as long as they lasted."- Yeah. Agreed a hundred percent. And I think learning to live with this virus is key. And I think governments are slowly realizing that maybe some of them here in Europe a bit too slowly. And talking about trends. I mean, there's all these new words that have come along during the pandemic, like bubble tours, for example. Do you think, what trends are you seeing that you think will stay or will stick in terms of, sustainable tourism, mindfulness? Another trend I see a lot of people talking about is rural versus urban. There'll be more tourism in rural areas.- There's no question about that. We've seen the areas beyond the metropolitan markets do extremely well. The beach locations, the mountain locations. In the United States, the national parks are sold out. You can't get into the national parks. They are full. More rural destinations. And so the smart destinations are going to be marketing beyond just the usual in city destinations. One of the things I think is going to happen is this over tourism is going to come back and be a factor. We've had 16 months, 17 months with no tourism. And we track this very carefully. And Destination Analysts, a group that we used last, two months ago, people were saying 33% of the people said,"We're not really, want the tourists in our town,"in our city." A month later, as tourism was coming back, it jumped to 43%. So I do think you're going to get pushback and we've gotta be really smart as an industry on the, what we call over tourism and spreading people out. We also have to do a better job talking about the things we're doing. The hotels, the restaurants, the airlines are doing great things and really from sustainability. But I don't think people know that. I think they look back at our industry, especially from the air part of it and saying how horrible air transport is. In reality, you put 250 people on a plane, it's far more efficient from an economy, from the ecological standpoint than those 250 people got in the car and drove to the destination.- So do you think the challenges maybe for the industry, it's communication. As in, we've got to communicate to the buyer, to the public that, you want a sustainable product, well, this actually is what we're doing. Or you want to go to a rural destination where you feel that your team, your staff will be safer and maybe that's a product that didn't exist before. And the challenge now for the industry is to communicate that.- I think so. I think that those that communicate as they had years past in the same way, are going to lose out to those who are more creative selling other parts of their destination, the unseen area. Europeans, especially like to discover things. And they like to go back and report to their friends that they were first to do it. And so I think there's a big opportunity to promote to our overseas friends beyond just the gateways and the other things you can see. But we have to totally change our communications, how we talk about tourism. I have often said to our destinations, "Stop talking about,"we set another record." It makes no sense. I know that they want their constituents to know they're doing a good job, but every time the headline is, record tourism, that just fuels the flames of people saying, "Is it enough?"Should we stop it? Should we tamp it down?" So I think we've got to learn a whole new dialogue, how we use words and a whole new way of communicating. And we've got to tell the world all the things we're doing right. Otherwise we'll be, instead of being, on the menu at the table, excuse me at the table, we're going to be on the menu. And we don't want to be there.- Yeah, and as somebody who's worked in media for many years, I think the media has an important role to play in their center to expand their horizon in terms of what they're reporting on. And often, I know as somebody who's been in the travel media space for 20 years now, I'm always asked, "What's your favorite place Michael?" People know I've traveled extensively. And I tend to say, "Well, I'm not going to name"a famous city or a famous country."I'm going to name somewhere"where you had a brilliant experience." And I'll say, "That's why I enjoy this destination,"because of the experience." And I think that's, I think that's a brilliant way for destinations to communicate, is to talk about the experience. Not necessarily, you're going to go to this famous city, this famous theater, this famous, whatever it is, museum. I think the experience is now very, very important.- Yeah, everyone you speak to when they come back and they report on a holiday or a meeting they have attended, they don't talk about, "Oh, I saw the Grand Canyon." No, they talk about the quaint little restaurant they found, a fabulous couple, took care of them and actually prepared the food or this tour guide they had that made them feel so special because he spoke their language. And I think it's the experiences that far outweigh just the places themselves.- Yeah. And I think therefore, everybody has an opportunity. As in, the smallest town in the U.S. can offer that. You don't have to be, a New York or a Chicago to offer that experience. It's the personal experience. Can we move on to vaccine passport? So it's very topical here in Europe at the moment. On the 1st of July, all of Europe introduced the digital COVID certificate. I'm aware that President Biden has said that he does not plan on introducing a COVID passport for the U.S. What does the U.S. industry think of what Europe is doing by introducing COVID passports?- We think it's, if Europe is going to do this, it's probably a good way to start travel. But we do know that a percentage of people will never be vaccinated for some reason. It could be as high as 30% that won't be vaccinated. So we want to be careful. We don't start the slippery slope of the only way you can get on a plane is to be vaccinated. There's a lot of medical science that says if you've had COVID and recovered, you have antibodies that make you just as safe as someone who's had the vaccine. It may be a combination of vaccinated people, those who've had COVID and recovered, PCR testing before you travel, if you don't want to do that. I think we need a myriad of ways you can come. We, U.S. travel and our governor, opposed to having a vaccine passport. It's fine if they want to do that in the EU. It could be a nightmare. We've been trying to get something in the United States called Real ID. And that's a driver's license that has your background on it. And we've been talking about it for 10 years and we still don't have it in some states. So I can imagine how hard it would be to get a vaccine passport. I think that we're going to have to trust people, show your card, you've been vaccinated. If you've got the Europeans doing their vaccine passport, great. Hopefully, we will accept that. And, but other ways of traveling. I think it's a very slippery slope to start demanding that the only way you can travel is if you've been vaccinated. Because I think when this COVID dies down and it will, we've seen this every single, whether it's been Ebola, whether it's been SARS, swine flu, they all go away. Something that comes along years later. But the bottom line, I don't want to see things get in place that will last for decades. And we're saying, "Why are we doing this still?" I remember when you used to have to get on a plane and say,"Has anyone given you a package to carry?" We did that for 20 years in the U.S. No one ever said someone gave a package to carry, but---- Exactly. Yeah, no. Agreed. And it's good to hear actually that that is not the thinking in the U.S. because already we've run into difficulties here in Europe. So for example, in a lot of countries, the adult population is now fully vaccinated. But the problem now is it's July and August, and you've got families going on holidays. You've got kids, say for example teenagers. So two parents, two kids, parents are fully vaccinated, but the kids aren't. So we're seeing all these teething problems appear, that nobody ever really thought about or sat down and considered properly. So there are many drawbacks to the vaccine passport.- Yeah and the science, we keep saying, follow the science, follow the medicine. The science says absolutely, young people are not prone to, getting hospitalized or killed with this disease. It's older people that have preexisting conditions are in danger, and we should treat that versus the blanket of having young people be vaccinated. And I think that's a very good example that you've made.- Yeah, no. Agreed. Can we lastly, kind of move on to connectivity. I mean, both you and I have flown, Dublin to Miami with Aer Lingus previously. And obviously that route does not exist at the moment. And, the question is when will it come back or will it come back? And I know there are many routes that I've flown before, both out of Ireland, out of the UK and even France and elsewhere into the U.S that are unlikely to come back or might take years and years to come back. I mean, that is definitely going to have a big impact, on the MICE industry and the broader travel industry. How do we, as an industry, I suppose, work with airlines, with airports and government to try and restore a lot of that kind of connectivity.'Cause I mean, at the end of the day, if there isn't connectivity, there isn't travel.- There's no question about it. And you mentioned that Aer Lingus route. I have flown it. I found it much easier to fly that, to go through pre-clearance on the way back to the U.S. than going to Heathrow. So that is a route that I would love to see come back because it's a great route and it's a great airline. The other thing that we have to have is make sure there's enough capacity. United Airlines just said they're buying 200 more jets, and another couple of from Airbus. So I think that's a plus of getting capacity. But what has to happen is each destination has to make the case, of look what you're missing. I just was recently at the Roots Conference where airlines and airports get together and argue whether an airline should serve this market or that market. And they try and convince the airlines that they should serve this airport. So it's very important that we have the numbers, and we can show the data because the airlines will follow wherever the money is. If there's a lot of passengers, they'll get there. It may take a little longer than we'd like. But I think those routes that have been proven in the past to be very successful will all come back because they've got a track record.- Yeah, well, hopefully the sooner, the better. I hope it doesn't take too long. And Roger, lastly, can I just ask for your thoughts going forward? Are you positive or negative going forward? I'm guessing you're positive, but what are your thoughts on how we're going to recover and how 2022 is going to pan out?- I am very positive, not because I head up the U.S. travel industry, but because I've seen this game before. When, it goes all the way back to teleconferencing. I was working at Marriott at the time. And teleconferencing came out and everyone said,"Oh my gosh, this is going to end the MICE market."People would just sit at home"in front of their computer screen." Didn't happen. It means the market got bigger. And I think, so I'm very optimistic that we will see it comeback. I'm not optimistic that we're going to see it come back as strong this year. But I am optimistic come 2022, a lot of the pundits are going to be surprised by how strong this market comes back and say,"Wow, travel market, MICE market surprises everybody"in its strength and the willingness of people"in what they desire to travel and meet face to face"and do commerce that way."- Yeah. Well, that's great to hear. And I think we as an industry need to be very positive going forward because in reality, there's been a lot of people who, the only messaging they've heard from their government over the last year plus is stay at home, don't go out, stay away from other people, social distancing, et cetera. And that has to have had an impact. And I think we need to reverse that communication now, both as an industry and I think our governments needs to do the same as now coming up with very positive messaging saying it is safe to travel. So that is good to hear. But Roger, I have to thank you for your time today. Really appreciate it. And a very interesting conversation. So everybody watching and listening, this has been Roger DOw who's President and CEO of U.S. Travel Association talking today on MICE Conversations. Thank you, Roger.- Michael it's always a pleasure and I hope that I'll see you in person at IPW in Las Vegas in September. We're holding a spot for you.- Excellent. I'm planning out a ledger. Thank you.(bright upbeat music)