Measuring and Enhancing Services Trade Data and Information Conference

The Office of Travel & Tourism Industries (OTTI) would like to invite you to participate in an opportunity to engage with government and private sector leaders on services data, including travel and tourism. The goal of the travel and tourism session is to create a dialog between the industry and government to discuss the data needs of the industry.

Speakers from the Travel & Tourism Advisory Board, which advises the Secretary of Commerce on travel and tourism related issues, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and OTTI will discuss the available data, data needs of the industry, and possible innovative solutions to obtaining data not currently collected.

With the passage of the Travel Promotion Act, President Obama’s National Export Initiative, the new Travel & Tourism Advisory Board now in place and the Corporation for Travel Promotion about to be stood up, along with the re-invigorated Tourism Policy Council meeting regularly, now, more than ever, there are mechanisms in place to invoke change within the government to work with the private sector to improve travel and tourism data.

Here is your opportunity to have input into the future of data for the travel and tourism industry. Please consider attending the Department of Commerce Services Data Conference in Washington, DC on September 14, 2010. Additional information on the conference is provided below. We encourage you to visit the website to learn more and to register for this event.

Overview: The Measuring and Enhancing Services Trade Data and Information Conference is a kickoff event for the Department of Commerce's initiative to collect and disseminate data and information needed to enable private sector companies from within the services industries to make better informed business decisions. The conference will feature innovative new approaches to collection and dissemination of data and information from public and private sources. By initiating a public-private dialog on services data innovation and the measurement of services production and trade, this conference supports the competitiveness of U.S. services industries in a challenging and dynamic global trading environment.A session specific to travel and tourism will be held during the afternoon of this event.

Where: This conference will take place in the main auditorium of the U.S. Department of Commerce building, 1401 Constitution Avenue, NW, in Washington, DC on Tuesday, September 14, 2010, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. We anticipate approximately 100-200 participants.

Who: Invited speakers include well-known policy leaders from the Bureau of Census, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and private sector innovators in the services information arena.