President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban is set for another court hearing in May, CNBC reports.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has decided that it will hold the hearing over the injunction against the ban issued by a federal judge in Honolulu, the Honolulu Civil Beat reports. The Trump administration had appealed the ruling, and now a three-judge panel of the appeals court will hold a hearing on the matter next month.
According to Politico, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals is still deciding how to handle an appeal on a separate decision by a Maryland-based judge to block part of the revised order, a ban on visas from six Muslim-majority countries. While the court had previously announced that a three-judge panel would hear arguments May 8, the court is now considering skipping that step and sending the case to the full bench of 15 judges.
Travel Industry Reacts
The policy drew implied criticism during this year’s Tianguis Turistico. In a speech at the travel and tourism trade show in Mexico, UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb D. Rifai alluded to the ban, as well as President Trump’s proposal to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, during a speech highlighting the importance of travel during a chaotic period in global politics.
"Travel and tourism is a calmness during this new world," Rifai said during the speech. "We become better when we travel, our eyes open, our hearts open, our minds open, all stereotypes are broken. I traveled the world. I am a better person. When we travel, we become better people because there is nothing more powerful then people coming (together), rubbing shoulders and creating this new world."
The revised travel ban was blocked in two separate court decisions in mid-March. In the Hawaii case, officials from the state had argued that the ban was discriminatory against Muslims, as well as that the executive order would harm Hawaii’s economy by disrupting its tourism industry. In Maryland, a judge ruled that the likely purpose of the executive order was “the effectuation of the proposed Muslim ban.”
In a recent survey of 400 travelers by black car service GroundLink, the vast majority of respondents (87 percent) said that they would not change their travel plans as a result of the current travel ban situation. Seven percent of respondents said they would avoid traveling internationally altogether, while six percent will continue to travel internationally for business but avoid traveling out of the country for leisure.
A separate study by Virtuoso found that only 10 percent of Virtuoso travel advisors have seen clients changing travel plans as a result of concerns over anti-American sentiment resulting from the ban and other administration policies. Terrorism and global instability were cited as bigger concerns, with 40 percent of Virtuoso advisors reporting that their clients now avoid certain destinations for those reasons.