Business Travel
As part of the government’s efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, Obama has asked employees of the federal government on Tuesday to reduce their business travel.
The federal government is currently the largest single energy consumer in the nation. Obama is seeking to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 13 percent before 2020.
Business travel and general commuting is being seen by the government as an easy first step to that goal, but the travel industry is not in agreement.
The US Travel Association called Obama’s move, “short-sighted and counter-productive…. and will further economic decline at precisely the wrong time for the more than two million Americans whose jobs depend on business travel.”
A study by Oxford Economics in 2009 found that business travel by the government gives better than a 5 to 1 return on investment. This finding strengthens the travel industry’s position.
The study further concluded that a reduction in government business travel will result in a lessening in the general productivity of federal employees – the exact opposite of what the government wants.
The study also found that a reduction in business travel by government employees would inevitably lead to job losses within the travel industry.
“President Obama’s recent statements calling for a reduction in government travel are troubling for two reasons,” said Michael McCormick, executive director of the National Business Travel Association.
“First, they are part of a pattern of negative and misguided comments from the administration that hurt the travel industry at an incredibly challenging time. Second, they seem to imply that cutting travel is the goal. The goal should be to use travel as cost-effectively as possible to meet the needs of the United States.”
The travel industry in the USA lost close to half a million jobs over the past two years. If government business travel were to increase by 10 percent, public sector productivity and GDP could increase by at least 1 percent and possibly up to 1.4 percent, according to the recent study by Oxford Economics.
The US travel industry is currently facing many thousands of unexpected job losses because of the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf.
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