Breaking Down the Budget – A Business Travel Perspective Part II

Breaking Down the Budget – A Business Travel Perspective Part II

On Friday, we wrote about what President Obama’s proposed 2015 budget means for business travel. Here is a closer look at the four things that are good for business travel and four things that are bad for business travel in the proposed budget – and what they really mean. We’ll start with the positives, albeit…

Smisek Returns to GBTA Convention
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Smisek Returns to GBTA Convention

United Airlines’ Jeff Smisek was a featured speaker on the “Sunday Night Live” welcome session at GBTA’s 2011 Convention in Denver fresh off United’s merger with Continental, making it the world’s largest airline at the time. Jeff told us about his plans for United to not just be the world’s largest airline, but to become…

Latest Forecast Shows Good News for Western Europe

Today, GBTA released our latest GBTA BTI™ Outlook – Western Europe report, a semi-annual analysis of the five most critical business travel markets in Europe: Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain. These five markets together form the lion’s share of business travel in the region acting as a good barometer of the health of…

Caucusing About Travel

Caucusing About Travel

We met last week with Representative Gus Bilirakis (R) from Florida’s 12th District, who represents the fast-growing Tampa Bay region of Florida’s Gulf Coast. Recently, Rep. Bilirakis joined Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) to co-chair the Congressional Travel and Tourism Caucus, which includes a bi-partisan group of over 90 Congressmen. The good news is that we…

Weather or Not

Weather or Not

I was invited to speak at the Wisconsin Business Travel Association’s Education Day in early January, just as the polar vortex was engulfing 26 states in wind-chill warnings or watches.  Wisconsin, of course, is a state known for its cold weather; it was in the low teens when I arrived, and the wind chill made it…

TSA’s Pistole Coming to Convention
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TSA’s Pistole Coming to Convention

I was very pleased when U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator John S. Pistole accepted our invitation to be a featured speaker at this year’s 2014 GBTA Convention in Los Angeles. Of all the agencies and government officials the GBTA Government Relations team deals with, it’s the TSA officers that interact with you and your…

Convention Re-imagined

Convention Re-imagined

The GBTA Convention has always been a meeting point for the dynamic individuals who make up the business travel industry. Like the industry itself, this year’s Convention is moving forward fast. I’m excited to share some exciting new changes to Convention with you. Convention this year begins on Saturday and Sunday, July 26 and 27,…