AT ALIS CONFERENCE, TAX CUT WAS POPULAR, IMMIGRATION MOVES NOT SO MUCH Trump policies loom over meeting of hotel developers and investors

By Danny King

LOS ANGELES — Politics were front and center at last week’s Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) conference here, as hotel executives, developers and analysts hailed last month’s GOP tax cuts while expressing concern about the impact of immigration policy on both the labor pool and inbound travel.

The tax cuts fueled optimism among both conference panelists and the approximately 3,000 ALIS attendees at the JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. Live. Industry members almost unanimously predicted that the cuts would spur more leisure and corporate demand as well as additional supply.

On the demand side, they predicted, the tax cut will result in higher paychecks for many workers, providing an additional boost for a leisure-travel sector where luxury travelers in particular have shown little sign of cutting their travel spending.

“For sure, the high-end leisure customer has maintained great demand,” said

Better aircraft, low-cost carriers fuel Europe flights from midsize U.S. cities

By Robert Silk

In early January, when Icelandair announced that this summer it would become the first airline to fly nonstop from Kansas City to Europe, it marked the end of nine years of negotiations between the Missouri city and the legacy Icelandic carrier.

But Kansas City Airport officials aren’t resting on their laurels.

“We don’t see this as our only opportunity
for a European link,” said deputy director of
operations Justin Meyer. “We think the vi-
ability is there for the market to support Ice-
landair and perhaps even more.”
Indeed, Meyer has reason for optimism.

Boosted by the rise of transatlantic low-
cost carriers and spurred on by more fuel-
efficient aircraft and the ever-expanding
market for international air travel, European
carriers have ventured increasingly into mid-
size U.S. cities in recent years.

In May, Kansas City will be among five U.S. cities, all of them midsize, that will be adding Europe to their route offerings. That month, the Delta-Air France/KLM joint venture will begin five-times-a-week service between Paris and Indianapolis, while Nashville will see the introduction of London service on British Airways (BA).

Meanwhile, Icelandair and its discount competitor Wow Air will each begin flying between Reykjavik and Cleveland, and Wow will become the lone European carrier servicing St. Louis.