March 8 - Zane Kerby, President & CEO of the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA), releases the following statement in response to Senate passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (H.R. 1319) on Saturday. The bill is expected to be passed in its final form by the House of Representatives and signed into law by President Biden this week.

 

“ASTA welcomes the provisions of the American Rescue Plan Act that will support travel-reliant businesses and the industry as whole recover from the COVID-19 crisis, several of which we have been advocating for nonstop since the beginning of the year. These include funding for vaccine distribution, extension of the Employee Retention Tax Credit through the end of the year with extra benefits for ‘severely distressed’ businesses, extension of the CARES Act’s enhanced unemployment benefits for laid-off employees and independent contractors through September, fully funding the CARES Act’s EIDL advance grant program and setting aside a portion of state and local government funding to support travel and tourism businesses.

 

“We appreciate in particular the efforts of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who offered two amendments we supported during Senate consideration, one of which would have made travel agencies eligible for the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program and the other to deem Washington-Alaska cruises ‘foreign voyages’ for the purposes of the Passenger Vessel Services Act. The bill would have been much improved if those amendments had been accepted.

 

“While the American Rescue Plan Act provides some support, it is clear that more is needed for our industry. We have been catastrophically impacted by COVID-19 and face a longer recovery window than virtually any other industry. Due to COVID and the governmental response to it, average travel agency business income was down 82 percent in 2020 as compared to 2019, and due to industry economics (i.e. commission payment schedules), there will be a substantial time lag between a return of travel bookings and a corresponding return of business income – an anticipated average of eight months’ delay.

 

“As we have said time and again, when government action has a disproportionally negative impact on a specific industry, it is a matter of fundamental fairness that the government provide targeted relief to the businesses most severely affected. With this principle as our North Star, we will keep fighting for relief until the travel agency sector is restored to health.

 

“We say to Congress – the job of COVID relief is not done. Through no fault of their own, the women and men in our membership – your constituents – are at risk of losing their livelihood and desperately need your support. At minimum, the Paycheck Protection Program must be extended and targeted toward the hardest-hit industries and the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program must be broadened to include travel agencies, as Senator Murkowski and Reps. Mark Amodei (R-NV) and Charlie Crist (D-FL) proposed before bill passage.”

 

 

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