This recession blows.  We have loved ones who are having to postpone retirement and others who are out of work and desperately looking.  We are ourselves extremely anxious about our own job situations (blogging don’t pay the bills unless you’re Nick Denton or Arianna Huffington), not to mention our shaky prospects for exciting travel in the next year.

That said, there will be interesting silver linings in this cloud.  You have undoubtedly heard about the multiple calls from government leaders to curb the corporate excess. 

You know about the private jets that the Big 3 automakers took to their Washington, DC hearings.  After that got out, they drove from Detroit to DC for the next round of hearings.  Have you also heard about the Wells Fargo Las Vegas trip that was abruptly cancelled when word leaked out about the past employee recognition trips and their excessive nature?

However, now the tourism industry has started to fight back by saying they need these corporate events and if they’re all cancelled then tourism is in trouble.  Take a look at this ad (on the right hand side) that some big hotel honchos placed on the front page of Politico a couple of weeks ago. 

See the entire letter here.

Yes, if big businesses start to become more reasonable (imagine that!) by holding corporate meetings that don’t include $700/night rooms at Circus Circus, banquets with dollar sign ice sculptures, and limo rides up and down The Strip, some in the “big tourism industry” will lose their jobs.  Maybe some hotels will go out of business.  And a few more Starbucks will close down. 

But if the main thing holding up jet companies and resort hotels are the ridiculous amounts of money spent by corporate America, then frankly they deserve to go under.   They need to rethink their reason for being.  The taxpayers aren’t bailing out these corporations so they can spend this money on Vegas junkets.  

How about getting employees used to events closer to home?  We’ve had staff trainings and celebrations at a locally owned wine bar, a locally owned vineyard, and at a locally owned bowling alley.  Yes, I’m sure those venues are laughable to the corporate types used to free massages and week-long trips to five-star resorts.  But things change.

And this type of change is good.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Tags: Arianna Huffington, bailout, big tourism, Las Vegas, Nick Denton

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 6:43 am and is filed under Grody, North America, Sermons, Socially conscious tourism, Sustainable tourism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.