Unlike the cautious approach taken by several other travel industry lobbying organizations, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has been highly critical of president Trump's attempt to ban travel to the U.S. by nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries. In a speech at the Routes Americas aviation conference in Las Vegas last week, WTTC CEO David Scowsill challenged the Trump administration directly, saying that the president's approach to security could bring about a long-term slump in tourism to the U.S. Senior editor Robert Silk caught up with Scowsill at the conference to discuss that and other issues.

Q: You've been outspoken about the dangers of what you describe as Trump's inward-looking approach to security. Why have you taken such a strong stance? David Scowsill

A: The first thing is that what we stand for as an organization is freedom to travel. The more people travel, the more people spread understanding, the better off we'll be around the world.

Q: You've also talked about the post-9/11 slump, when travel to the U.S. dropped 9% for most of the remainder of the decade. Tell me why you're concerned that could happen again.

A: The risk that this ban has is not just banning people from those seven countries but the reverberation that America is closing down, is not open for any business and that people are looking at whether they want to travel here or not, for both business or leisure. So there is a risk if this is not turned around that we will see a drop-off of international passengers coming to the U.S.

Q: Trump says a travel ban is necessary to safeguard Americans.

A: There is no incident in the last 30 years of a national from one of those seven countries coming to the United States to commit any type of terrorist killing. If you compare that with the domestic shootings that happen in the United States, for the last 10 years there has been an average of 11,700 Americans killed in domestic shootings. The message is: focus on what is going on domestically and don't assume that any of these gun incidents are going to be committed by people flying in to do that type of activity.

Q: Have you seen any fallout so far from the travel ban? Data on this subject has been mixed.

A: What the data is showing in the first two weeks is there are less people searching to come to the United States by about 10%, and there are less bookings coming through. And when I talk to the CEOs running the big lodging companies or the big airlines or even looking at the GDS data, there is a trend of people from around the world not coming to the U.S. at this period in time. It is not dramatic at the moment. It is somewhere around the 4% to 5% range.

Q: We are at an aviation conference, so tell me what WTTC's priorities are related to aviation?

A: The issues for us in aviation are principally around keeping open skies open and not putting up barriers and getting people to move through the system, using technologies like electronic visa processing.

Q: President Trump's press secretary, Sean Spicer, spoke in support of Norwegian Air recently, and Trump made what sounded like supportive statements about foreign airlines when he met with U.S. airline and airport executives two weeks ago. Have these early signals left you optimistic?

A: I think the early indications are that president Trump's administration is focused on American jobs and on building the economy and on infrastructure investment, all of which are very good things for our industry. And I think we saw about Norwegian and about other airlines that are flying Boeing aircraft, for example, those aircraft are manufactured in the U.S. creating American jobs, so it's not just a simple argument about open skies and bilateral agreements. It's all about where jobs and growth are going to come from.

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World Travel & Tourism Council's David Scowsill: Travel Weekly - Travel Weekly