Laws can be a burden to RI journey, tourism trade

opinion

Steve Shur
| The Providence Journal

Steve Shur is the President of the Travel Technology Association and represents companies such as Orbitz, Expedia, Priceline, Travelocity, Airbnb, and others.

In the past year, COVID-19 devastated the Ocean State’s economy. As Rhode Island seeks to rebuild, lawmakers must not underestimate the ability of travel and tourism to fuel economic growth. The fact is that one in seven jobs in Rhode Island is driven by the travel industry. Ensuring that the Rhode Island tourism industry has all opportunities to flourish unhindered must be the top priority.

Two dangerous bills – HB5505 and the Senate Accompanying Bill, SB501 – are under scrutiny by state lawmakers that would cause irreparable damage to the Rhode Island travel industry at a time devastated by the global pandemic. These bills would require that “third-party hosting platforms” like Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com only list properties that are properly registered with the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation.

In the absence of provisions in the bill that could facilitate technical coordination between the state and third-party hosting platforms, it would be impossible for hosting platforms to meet these registration requirements, potentially eliminating thousands of tourist accommodation options and cutting off valuable valuables Source of income for many Rhode Islanders.

If passed, these new regulations would also harm Rhode Island rental managers and property managers, who have websites that list rental properties. The regulations would add verification problems to these small Rhode Island businesses, and consequently reduce their bookings and lower their profits.

Hundreds of thousands of Rhode Island reservations are booked on these platforms each year, and with those reservations come millions of dollars for restaurants, shops, and attractions in Rhode Island. The Providence Journal reported last October that many of these companies that were able to stay open saw business declines 50% or more and thousands of workers lost their jobs or worked fewer hours.

With 16,460 travel and tourism jobs in Rhode Island, lawmakers have plenty of reasons to oppose these onerous travel and tourism regulations.

These invoices contradict the nature of the listing of the properties. Due to the volume of properties listed and the variety of when and for how long a property is listed, it is simply not possible for a hosting platform to be responsible for checking compliance. Homeowners, hosts, and property managers list properties for rent and often take them down based on bookings, availability, demand, and other factors.

Aside from the impracticality of these regulations, these bills also violate federal law. In 1996, Congress passed Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which enacted laws that force Internet platforms to monitor and regulate third-party users under threat of government punishment. If Rhode Island continues to pass laws inconsistent with Section 230, it will create a legal dilemma that leaves the Rhode Island tourism industry in operational uncertainty.

Legislators should not enact any new burdensome regulations for the travel and tourism industry. Instead, they should use it as a catalyst to revitalize the Rhode Island economy. After nearly a year of unprecedented hardship, the introduction of new regulations on tourism in Rhode Island will only further hamper economic growth and recovery for the state.