The voting has ended, and Donald Trump will return to the White House in January for his second term. (As of press time, Republicans held a majority in the Senate and also had a slim lead in control of the House.)
Potential policies from the new Trump administration could impact four areas of the meetings industry.
1. abortion rights
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, prompting some planners to add anti-discrimination clauses to contracts to protect their organizations if legal circumstances change between the contract and the event. Others refuse to seek venues in states with anti-abortion laws. This is expected to continue during Trump’s presidency.
2. climate change
Climate change, particularly extreme weather events, continues to impact the most popular meeting and event destinations from the Caribbean to the East Coast. Many experts point to the challenges of 2024 as evidence of the urgent need to address the impact of climate change on hurricanes.
Donald Trump’s campaign promises include withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement again, supporting increased nuclear energy production and reassessing electric vehicle mandates.
Laurence Tubiana, chief executive of the European Climate Foundation and architect of the Paris Agreement, called the election results “a setback for global climate action.” But the Paris Agreement has proven to be resilient and more powerful than the policies of any single country,” she told Climate Home News.
3. Visa delays and travel restrictions
Trump’s previous administration tightened security measures for travelers from certain regions, and in 2017 his administration restricted entry to citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The question remains whether his administration will extend the travel ban again or target travelers.
On the positive side, visa wait times have dropped by nearly 60% since the peak of the pandemic backlog, with 8.5 million of the 11.5 visas issued in FY2024 being visitor visas, a 10% increase from FY2023. Reduce wait times from Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and India. This is good news for the trade show industry, which has been grappling with this issue since the pandemic began.
4. Hidden fees and transparency
The No Hidden Fees Act, passed by the House in June, seeks to mandate disclosure of junk fees. The Senate version of the bill — known as the Hotel Fee Transparency Act — would create a single standard for mandatory fee display across the lodging ecosystem.
Supporters argue the law will make the overall cost of organizing and attending conferences more transparent. However, some members of the Republican Party said the law would harm businesses and that the previous Trump administration had a record of rolling back regulations.
