AHLA urges lawmakers to make fixes ahead of World Cup, Olympics

NATIONAL REPORT – With the World Cup, the USA's 250th anniversary and the 2028 Olympic Games on the horizon, American Hotel & Lodging Association CEO Rosanna Maietta urged Congress on Thursday to address policy issues affecting the hotel industry.

Maietta testified before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade. She emphasized that hotels must overcome significant challenges to accommodate the anticipated influx of international visitors.

According to Maietta, U.S. hotels’ operating expenses have increased four times faster than revenue in the years since Covid because of rising insurance premiums, interest rates, labor costs and healthcare expenses.

“The majority of U.S. hotels are small businesses and vital economic engines in their communities,” she said. “Yet five years after the onset of the pandemic, our industry is still on the path to recovery.”

Maietta outlined four key policy priorities, including releasing the maximum allowable number of H-2B visas to help address the industry’s longstanding labor shortage, restoring full funding to tourism-promotion bureau Brand USA through the VISIT USA Act, preventing another government shutdown at the end of January and supporting the American Franchise Act.

Maietta also lauded a tax reform bill enacted this summer that enables workers to pay no tax on their tips, which she estimated will benefit more than 800,000 hotel workers and allows eligible employees to deduct up to $25,000 in reported tips.

Maietta said the U.S. travel and tourism sector generates nearly $900 billion in GDP annually, contributes $83 billion in tax revenue and supports one in every 25 American jobs.

Note: This story first appeared in Travel Weekly