To help celebrate the 10th anniversary of the historic White House Conference on Travel & Tourism, the Palm Beach County Cultural Council will participate in the U.S. Cultural & Heritage Tourism Summit held in Washington D.C. October 6-8.
Bill Nix, Cultural Council Vice President, Marketing and Government Affairs is part of a panel that will discuss the Creative Economy in Cultural and Heritage Tourism.
The summit is designed to develop and expand cultural and heritage tourism for the benefit of local economies, local residents, cultural institutions, traveling consumers and the travel and tourism industry. It is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce and The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. The summit is presented in partnership with the Cultural & Heritage Tourism Alliance and Partners in Tourism. Approximately 350 cultural tourism specialists will attend.
Mr. Nix served on the summit’s Research Working Group, which looked at a number of issues brought forth in the 1995 White House Paper on data collection and dissemination for cultural institutions, economic impact studies, and international visitors. Part of the Group’s output was recommending to explore the advantages of forming various cultural-tourism alliances.
“Summit organizers are impressed with Palm Beach County’s cultural tourism programs, and being invited to share our local experiences on a national level is exciting. I’m also looking forward to examining how cultural tourism is being cultivated in other markets around the country,” Mr. Nix says.
Mr. Nix has been very active in advocating for various cultural tourism programs on the local and state levels. He also serves on the national steering committee of the Cultural & Heritage Tourism Alliance, and plans to encourage summit organizers to bring its 2008 conference to Palm Beach County.
Eighty-one percent of the 146.4 million U.S. adults who took a trip of 50-plus miles from home in the past year are considered cultural tourists*. In addition to cultural travelers spending more money, areas that tout cultural tourism usually have a stronger sense of community pride and way of life.
Ten years ago, the White House Conference on Travel & Tourism brought together for the first time leaders in the tourism and travel industry. That first conference was designed to help increase the United State’s share of international tourism.
The Culture & Heritage Tourism Summit celebrates the tenth anniversary of this landmark conference by gathering various leaders in the travel, cultural and heritage sectors and developing new partnerships and strategies all focused on cultural and heritage tourism.
For additional information, please contact:
Larry Boytano
Public Relations Coordinator
Palm Beach County Cultural Council
1555 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd., Suite 300
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Tel. (561) 471-1601
Fax (561) 687-9484
lboytano@pbccc.org
www.palmbeachculture.com
