PHILADELPHIA — Nearly 3,000 transportation and tourism professionals gathered for the American Bus Association Marketplace, which took place February 1–4 in Philadelphia.
The event, which has become the largest group travel tradeshow in North America, generated some 7,000 room nights for Philadelphia hotels and about a $5 million economic impact for the city.
Fred Ferguson, who took over as the association’s president and CEO last summer after the retirement of longtime leader Peter Pantuso, said he was impressed by the size and scope of his first ABA convention.
“The size of the business floor has surpassed my expectation,” Ferguson said. “I never could have imagined what that experience was like without seeing it. Here you have 2,000 businesses meeting with each other and changing their meetings every seven minutes. That’s equivalent to a year’s worth of sales meetings in four days.”
Ferguson said the size of the event and the variety of companies in attendance point to an attitude of optimism about group travel, which aligns with trends ABA has been tracking in the motorcoach industry.
“I think our operators are in growth mode,” he said. “During COVID, we lost about half of the registered bus operators in the country. To operate a bus, you have to register with the government. We went from about 3,000 companies registered to about 1,500. Now, we’re at 1,900, so we’re starting to see it return. The consumer demand still exists. So you’re seeing a lot of companies either acquire companies that went bankrupt or expanding their fleets to meet demand.”
The convention took place during a week when the Trump administration announced — and then quickly rescinded — significant tariffs on Canada and Mexico. These actions were an area of concern for many members in attendance.
“The trade disputes between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are a real risk,” Ferguson said. “Most motorcoaches are built in Canada. If a 25% tariff goes into effect, that’s going to be passed down to the bus owner, the tour operator, the customer and in some ways the hotels and restaurants. Our foundation just put out a study that says in 2026, with a 25% tariff, there would be a $3 billion economic hit to the group travel industry that would affect 15,000 jobs. And the U.S. government would lose a net of $50 million.
“There’s a pause in the tariffs as we sit here today, which is positive. But we take nothing for granted. If it turns out to be just a quick negotiation, great. But in the meantime, if that is still on the table, we’re going to advocate for the industry as hard as we can.”
Based on the potential that tariffs pose for disrupting the tour and transportation industries, Ferguson said the association leadership is already preparing advocacy plans to respond if tariffs are implemented.
“A lot of public policy is shaped by public perception,” he said. “So, we need to encourage people to talk to their local communities about it. Call their congressional representatives. Talk to their state representatives. If you do that at scale, across 3,000 businesses, you start to get some attention. Then policymakers start to realize that this is all interconnected.”
The ABA board of directors recently approved a five-point public policy agenda as part of a new strategic plan that also includes elements such as membership growth, motorcoach safety and association communications.
“If we have a good business plan for each of those priorities, we can be a world-class organization,” Ferguson said.
