Start Planning: National Tourism and Travel Week Is Coming!

Every year the first full week of May is recognized as National Travel and Tourism Week in the U.S. During this week cities, states, and travel businesses nationwide sponsor rallies and other events to celebrate the power of travel.

The week began as National Tourism Week, and was established by Congress in 1983. In a 1984 White House ceremony, President Ronald Reagan signed a Presidential Proclamation urging citizens to observe the week with “the appropriate ceremonies and activities.” Since its establishment, the U.S. travel community has collectively marked the event in a number of creative ways, from staging local rallies and conducting media outreach to securing proclamations and resolutions from local legislative bodies.

This year, the event will be May 7-15, with the Travel Rally Day occuring May 10.

Travel Rally Day is a concerted effort to demonstrate travel's impact on local workers, businesses, and economies. Individual events are staged in cities nationwide during National Travel and Tourism Week. The goal of Rally Day is to unite a community's travel workers and supporters and publicly represent the industry to media, elected officials and residents with a message that travel matters to this nation and to local communities.

Now is the time to start planning for National Tourism and Travel Week and the Travel Rally Day. Our friends at the U.S. Travel Association have compiled a website of helpful tips and tools to help you plan. Your local visitors bureau or state tourism agency may already have something in the works, so you may want to combine forces with them, or start your own!

If you are planning to participate, tell us, so we can help promote your event.