Travel Matters

This week, hundreds of cities, states, and businesses across the United States will participate in National Travel and Tourism Week, organized by our friends at the U.S. Travel Association. National Travel and Tourism is an industry-wide effort to promote the economic, cultural, and social benefits created by travel and tourism to policymakers, the media, and the public.

This year will mark the 26th annual Travel and Tourism Week, but U.S. Travel has planned some fresh new events to coincide with the occasion. The first U.S. Travel Rally Day will be staged in multiple communities nationwide tomorrow with members of local government, businesses, and tourism bureaus uniting to promote the "Meetings Mean Business" and "Travel Matters" messages.

U.S. Travel has prepared a "tool-kit" and has many resources available (including that nifty graphic on the right) to help you organize a rally or recognize Travel and Tourism Week at your facility. You can even look up your city to see if a rally is already planned. Scanning the list I saw both the Orlando/Orange Country CVB, which hosted us at IAAPA Attractions Expo 2007 & 2008, and the Las Vegas CVA, which will play host this November to IAAPA Attractions Expo 2009.

If you participate, please feel free to shoot me an e-mail and tell me about your experience. I'll make sure it gets passed along to U.S. Travel. Have fun!