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.
See MIDSIZE on Page 34 See ALIS on Page 36
Long viewed through a veil
of nostalgia, the luxury train
market is growing, modernizing
and looking to the future.
BY SARAH FELDBERG PAGE 14
Arnie Weissmann
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sives, the economic outlook and more. 12
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