TIA launches travel web site for Obama transition team

The Washington, D.C.-based Travel Industry Association (TIA) has launched a new Web page that’s intended to inform and educate President-elect Barack Obama’s new Administration on critical travel industry issues.

The Web site, www.poweroftravel.org/transition provides transition teams at the Departments of Commerce, Homeland Security, Interior, State and Transportation, as well as at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with in-depth briefing papers on issues such as visa requirements, U.S. travel marketing and promotion, travel diplomacy, rail travel, and travel and climate change. It also includes links to external analyses by government agencies, think tanks and other industry stakeholders—all designed to connect the new Obama Administration with “the best thinking on nearly all federal travel policies.”

“Travel to and within the United States creates bottom-up economic growth in every state and congressional district, and facilitates the people-to-people diplomacy that constitutes America’s best opportunity to win hearts and minds around the world,” reads the new Web site.

Added TIA President and CEO Roger Dow in a statement early this month, “TIA took the important step of providing President-elect Obama’s transition teams with easy to digest issue briefs and a catalog of comments by respected third parties. We are committed to being a resource to the incoming Administration and we are confident that the power of travel to improve America’s economy and strengthen her standing in the world will shine through.”