If federal lawmakers fail to find a way to keep the government running past next week, then the shutdown will cost the nation's travel industry $185 million per day in lost economic output, the U.S. Travel Association said Wednesday.

U.S. Travel estimates the losses will come in the form of temporary layoffs, reduced wages and fewer hours worked. Some 530,000 travel-related jobs would be affected, the group said.

"Political leaders need to understand that there are real-world consequences to these arguments that go on in the halls of power," U.S. Travel CEO Roger Dow said. "I realize that each side feels passionately about their respective position, but frankly there's just no excuse for letting the fiscal year expire without a budget when we know that people's very livelihood, their ability to feed their families, is at stake."

U.S. Travel pointed to the closure of national parks during the 2013 government shutdown, which reduced travel spending by $630 million. Many regional economies are dependent on the jobs those parks provide, the association said.

The group also is worried about the effect of the shutdown on travel-related agencies such as Customs and Border Protection, the Transportation Security Administration or the State Department, which issues travel visas.

"Though officials assured us at the time that the 2013 shutdown would not affect the work of those agencies, anecdotal evidence on that score was mixed," Dow said. "If we detect that a new shutdown is hurting those travel-related functions as well, we'll certainly stand ready to spotlight the fallout for policymakers and the public." http://bit.ly/1KT9IfP

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