Erik Hansen, U.S. Travel Association Senior Vice President and Head of Government Relations on government shutdown, October 24th, 2025
Description
Since the government shutdown began, the U.S. Travel Association website has featured an increasing "Travel Spending Lost Since the Government Shutdown" counter. As of Thursday's conversation, the number had breached $3 billion.
Hansen says hotels, small businesses, and a variety of other industries have been impacted.
"A billion dollars a week every hour the shutdown goes on," Hansen told CBS6. "It comes from a number of different things, delays, cancelations that we've seen historically during the shutdown, modeling what it's costing us. It's due to government and federal workers not traveling, contractors not traveling, and historically, the largest purchaser of travel services anywhere in the country is the federal government, national parks, which have a huge economic cost as well. And these are just piling up all across the country."
The conversation also touched on:
-Air traffic controllers
-current technology in the airline industry
-international travel
-Visa Process improvements
-major events in next year (2026 World Cup, 250th Anniversary, 2028 Olympics)
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