Trump & the Travel Industry: Key Impacts and Latest Outlook

Ryan Sweet is the Chief US Economist at Oxford Economics. He is responsible for forecasting and assessing the US macroeconomic outlook and how it will influence monetary policy and financial markets. Ryan is among the most accurate high-frequency forecasters of the U.S. economy, according to MarketWatch and Bloomberg LP.

Prior to joining Oxford Economics, Ryan led real-time economics at Moody’s Analytics and was a member of the U.S. macroeconomics team. He was also head of the firm’s monetary policy research, following actions by the Federal Reserve and examining its potential impact on the U.S. economy.

Ryan is an adjunct professor in the Economics and Finance Department at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. He received a master’s degree in finance from John’s Hopkins University, a master’s degree in economics from the University of Delaware, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Washington College.

Adam Sacks is the founder and President of Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company dedicated to understanding the relationship between travel and the economy.

For more than two decades, Adam has worked with destinations, industry associations, and companies around the world in the areas of opportunity and risk assessments, policy analysis, and economic impact.

He is an authority on measuring the economic impact of visitor activity and has analyzed the impacts of cruising, gaming, timeshare, hotels, new attractions and destination marketing. Adam’s work has provided the foundation for billions of dollars in capital investment decisions by hotel companies, developers, and investors. Destination marketing organizations around the world rely on Tourism Economics data and scenario models to inform global marketing investment allocations.

Adam also supports trade associations in the aviation, hotel, and broader travel arena with forecasts widely considered to be an industry standard. Adam’s work has influenced critical government policies in the areas of travel facilitation, taxation, and tourism promotion initiatives. Adam regularly presents to corporate strategic planning teams on the threats and opportunities facing their businesses and is a member of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Travel & Tourism Advisory Board.

Zeek spearheads the delivery of economic solutions to DMO, association, and corporate clients. He has built a reputation for his ability to translate complex data into meaningful insights.

Prior to joining Tourism Economics, he was Head of Marketing for Tourism & Hospitality at ADARA, where his focus was successfully bringing new solutions to market — nurturing both product adoption and customer retention.

Prior to Adara, Zeek led Visit Savannah as Director of Data Intelligence for over a decade, where he specialized in delivering high-quality data and insights.
In both roles, he emerged as a trusted thought leader on how to deploy travel analytics to maximize impact and has been a regular speaker at industry events.

Zeek brings this skill set into the Tourism Economics product suite, enriching our work in forecasting, economic impact, budget analysis, and the Symphony intelligence platform.