On Tuesday,
September 8, 2009, the U.S. Congress is scheduled to return from their
summer recess and the Senate will begin consideration of S. 1023, the
Travel Promotion Act of 2009. The House of Representatives is
expected to take up this legislation later this year. Please tell your
Member of Congress to support inclusion of the
nonprofit arts and culture sector in this bill!
This bipartisan
legislation would create a public-private partnership to promote travel
to the United States,
and help the United
States compete with other countries by
sending more welcoming messages to our friends around the world.
Americans for the Arts supports the basic principles of this bill which
we believe will greatly increase tourism in this country.
However, this
legislation currently does not specifically address cultural
tourism issues nor does it include direct representation of the nonprofit
arts and culture sector within its proposed policies and programs.
The bill calls for a global advertising strategy to generate travel to
the United States and
according to the U.S. Travel Association, cultural tourism is the most
popular marketing strategy in use by national tourism
organizations. A national tourism strategy should include cultural
tourism.
According to
Americans for the Arts' Arts & Economic Prosperity III study,
the nonprofit arts generate $166 billion annually in economic activity
and support 5.7 million jobs, and an enormous amount of this activity and
these jobs are supported through cultural tourism. Travel and
tourism research shows that cultural travelers spend more and stay
longer.
