The U.S. Travel Association on Tuesday called for consistent federal guidelines on large business meetings and launched a new initiative called "Let's Meet There" to help accelerate the return of business travel and meetings.

The current surge in domestic leisure travel puts it on track to reach its pre-pandemic peak in 2022. But business travel is not expected to rebound until 2024, according to an analysis by U.S. Travel and its data partner Tourism Economics.

That's "certainly too long to wait. And we really need to take a look at how we can get this going … faster," U.S. Travel CEO Roger Dow said during a virtual press conference Tuesday.

While the overall travel industry was devastated by the pandemic, business travel experienced a "disproportionate amount of harm," he said.

Spending on domestic business travel fell by 68% last year, and just one-third of U.S. businesses are currently engaging in any business-related travel, according to the association.

"Business travel could be bleak if we don't do something immediately," Dow said. "To bring back that spending and jobs, we need to bring back … large events and professionally managed conventions."

Dow blamed the dismal recovery on the "patchwork" of rules around large gatherings, which vary from state to state and city to city.

"Business leaders don't know what to expect when they go to a different destination," he said.

Dow called on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide clear, consistent guidance on hosting large business events and to differentiate them from "large gatherings." Unlike informal gatherings, professional meetings are "controlled gatherings with access limited to screened guests and layers of proven safety protocols at work to minimize health risks," according to U.S. Travel's website.

The association's "Let's Meet There" campaign webpage provides messages, fact sheets and sample letters for people to communicate directly with elected officials and business leaders. U.S. Travel said it would provide more details on the campaign at a press event in Las Vegas Wednesday.

The country's health situation is moving in right direction, with more than half of Americans now fully vaccinated, Dow said. Safety measures that the travel industry has put in place are working, he added.

U.S. Travel has partnered with The Ohio State University to develop science-based evidence on how to hold business meetings safely. Bernadette Melnyk, vice president for health promotion, university chief wellness officer and dean of OSU's College of Nursing, provided several recommendations during the webinar based on findings from the CDC and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network:

—Require masks for all unvaccinated people attending business meetings, and encourage masks for vaccinated people.
—If the event includes nonvaccinated attendees, mandate six feet of distance; if everybody is vaccinated, no distance is needed.
—Provide pre-packaged meals and drinks to ensure "low-touch" distribution.
—Improve ventilation systems.

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