Lodging Trade Association President/CEO Joe McInerney Gives State Of The Industry Address Via Internet (Streaming CLIP)

Greetings from Washington, DC. As the President prepares to give his State of the Union speech, I am going to take this opportunity to update you on the state of the hospitality industry.

Certainly, in these days of uncertainty, it is not wise to make grand predictions or forecasts.

But I believe it is safe to say that 2002 will be a better year for the hospitality industry than 2001 was.

As you know, the combination of a slowing economy and September 11th resulted in a year of unparalleled declines in terms of profits, revenues and REVPAR.

As a result, lodging companies have modified their operations--trimming expenses and cutting staff.

While this has meant hardship in the interim, the end result will be a leaner, but more efficient, industry in 2002.

That's a good thing. And there's plenty more good news for the year ahead.

Remember, many of the meetings and conferences that were postponed in September and October were re-scheduled for the first quarter of 2002.

And beyond that, the experts are saying the economy should start a rebound toward the end of the second quarter.

Both of these bode well for our industry, as does the slowdown in new construction.

The shrinkage of supply growth will be an important factor leading to an equalization of the supply/demand ratio.

But our industry's recovery is also going to depend on more than just economic factors…we need to focus on delivering service and value. We need to focus on our sales and marketing efforts, cross-train our staffs' and put a greater emphasis on security, which will be more crucial than ever in building consumer confidence and awareness.

And most importantly, we need to build on those personal relationships that are at the heart of our business.

The new year is a time to re-establish ties with customers and employees alike.

It's also a time to re-establish ties with Capitol Hill.

Remember, 2002 is a vital election year-with the majorities in both the House and Senate hanging in the balance.

We need to be up-to-date on the issues so that we can elect a Congress that will support our industry for the next two years and beyond.

To that end, I would like to invite all of you to attend American Hotel & Lodging Association's fifth annual Legislative Action Summit here in Washington, DC February 26 -28.

Nick Calio, Assistant to the President - Legislative Affairs and Elaine Chao, Secretary of Labor are two of the featured speakers.

We will be discussing the 2002 campaign, along with ways to encourage this Congress to pass an economic stimulus bill.

Since the fall, we've been urging Congress to reconsider the deductibility of business meals and spousal travel and the passage of the American Travel Promotion Act.

That act, also known as The Foley Bill, would provide one hundred million dollars to states to promote travel and tourism-something that would obviously have a huge impact on our industry.

We need to continue those efforts…and we need your help.

Our industry will recover in 2002…but to make a full recovery…. every single one of you needs to take part.

We all need to take a more hands-on approach to our business-to improve service while maximizing cost efficiencies-in order to show our customers what true hospitality is all about.

I wish all of you a happy, healthy and successful year…and God Bless America.

ENDS

AH&LA is a 92-year-old federation of state lodging associations throughout the United States with some 13,000 property members worldwide, representing more than 1.7 million guest rooms. AH&LA provides its members with assistance in operations, education, and communications, and lobbies on Capitol Hill to provide a business climate in which the industry can continue to prosper. Individual state associations provide representation at the state level and offer many additional cost-saving benefits.

Hsyndicate.com is a global infrastructure technology platform for the aggregation, distribution and seamless integration of digital content to Web sites, portals, and wireless networks exclusively operating in the hospitality B2B vertical. Hsyndicate's open-source technology aggregates industry-specific contents and online services — then filters, delivers and precisely integrates this content instantaneously into their client public portals, private Intranets, and wireless networks. Hsyndicate feeds its contents to various hotel chains' Intranets and various industry-related portals such as hospitalitynet.org and wiredhotelier.com.