Hi all,

I was having trouble uploading this message 9which I had promised to do during our Zoom town Hall). Mike has fixed the bug and so… here it is (finally!).

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One of the more relevant and important discussions at Virtuoso Travel Week were laid out during the ASTA & Virtuoso Meeting for Owners and Managers during Virtuoso Travel Week. As you may know, ASTA and Virtuoso have stood shoulder to shoulder to champion the cause of Travel Advisors and Travel Agencies during this pandemic.

ASTA PAC has been working with our Congressional representatives for several years now and it is the very special relationship that they have nurtured over the years that paid off big time in getting the interests of the Travel Agency community front and center with Congress. The Cares ACT which passed in March, for the first time got real unemployment relief to Independent Contractors in the travel industry… in addition to the PP the SBA Emergency Disaster loans.

There was a general consensus among the top management of most of the member Travel Agencies on the call that we should all urge our team members… house advisors and Independents and also all our admin staff to do the following:

1. Continue to make our voices heard in Congress. Do this by clicking on this link and make your voice heard to our leaders in the Senate and the house. It takes just a few minutes of your time… do it today, please!: https://www.asta.org/Government/Advocacy.cfm?navItemNumber=11180
2. Donate a minimum of $5.00 to ASTA PAC today. This will help ASTA continue to lobby on behalf of every one of us. See below for the work that still needs to be done in order for all of us to receive more of the much-needed federal Assistance to be able to keep our doors open until business comes back. Here is the link where you can donate: https://app.mobilecause.com/vf/ASTAPAC?navItemNumber=15118.

Please do this today. Our future depends, in large part, to the travel industry getting the second round of assistance all around!