The Travel Stocks Congress Loves to Trade

Members of Congress help shape the future of the travel industry — and some are personally investing in it, too.

A Skift analysis of congressional financial disclosures reveals that more than three dozen lawmakers and their spouses have traded stocks in airlines, hotel chains, cruise companies, and travel tech firms.

In all, federal lawmakers and their spouses have made nearly 600 individual travel industry-related stock trades since the 2021-2022 congressional session, congressional financial records indicate. Taken together, the purchases and sales are worth well into the millions of dollars.

Shares of Marriott International, Airbnb, Uber, Hilton Worldwide, and Booking Holdings rank among the most frequently traded common stocks by members of Congress and their spouses. 

Members of Congress are legally allowed to buy and sell individual stocks as long as they don’t violate the anti-insider trading provisions of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, known as the STOCK Act. They must disclose their trades within 45 days.

Dozens of members of Congress have violated these disclosure rules in the past decade. And a growing number of elected Republicans and Democrats alike want to limit or ban trading individual stocks.

Even some of Congress’ most prolific travel stock traders tell Skift that they’re rethinking their investment strategies or have recently stopped trading individual stocks.

“The travel and tourism industry is affected by tax implications, subsidies, lots of decisions,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, director of government affairs for the nonprofit and nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight. “Lawmakers can pass a stock ban … they could just invest in broad-based mutual funds right now.”

Here is Skift’s company-by-company assessment of which federal lawmakers are trading travel and tourism industry stocks:

In all, eight members of Congress disclosed making recent Booking Holdings stock trades within their immediate families, including Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Reps. Jefferson Shreve (R-Ind.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Dan Newhouse (D-Wash.), Bill Keating (D-Mass.), Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas).