Who started National Tourist Appreciation Day?

Nobody on record. The earliest documentation located is the Congressional Record for May 6, 1992, where two House members spoke of it as an established occasion, and the searches behind that covered federal records, so a state or city proclamation could still exist.

Is it the same as National Travel and Tourism Week?

No. The 1983 resolution behind that week designated a single week in 1984, and the US Travel Association publishes its dates now. This day is listed on May 6.

Why is National Tourist Appreciation Day on May 6?

May 6 is the date current calendars use, and an Internet Archive capture shows it already fixed there in 2006. The three dated mentions in the Congressional Record fall on May 6, May 8 and May 7, so the date has not always been fixed, and no source states why May 6 was chosen.

National Tourist Appreciation Day

Next celebratedThursday, May 6, 2027

National Tourist Appreciation Day is for the visitors a place lives on and the people who look after them. Thank someone at a hotel desk or a museum door, then spend an afternoon playing tourist where you live.

See how to celebrate

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEMay 6

OBSERVED INUnited States

CATEGORYTravel

SUBCATEGORYVacation Planning

ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

Not documented

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

Congress marked it, on three different dates.

The earliest documentation of National Tourist Appreciation Day is in the United States Congressional Record, where members of both chambers marked the day on three different dates during the 1990s, none of them the May 6 the calendars carry. No founder, proclamation or establishing record has been located.

Read the House floor recordvia congress.gov

INTRO

A date the Congressional Record does not agree with

On the afternoon of May 7, 1997, Sam Farr of California took a minute of the House's time to point out something the gallery might not have known. It was National Tourist Appreciation Day. The Congressional Record printed his remarks under that heading, in capital letters.

He was not the first to do it. Members of Congress named the day three times in the 1990s, and no two of them rose on the same date.

The date has moved since. Every calendar that carries National Tourist Appreciation Day now fixes it to May 6, and no proclamation, statute or founding record has turned up to explain the choice.

ORIGINS

Tourist Appreciation Day history

INTRODUCTION

Thanking visitors with a set-aside day did not begin with a holiday calendar. Louisiana was running one in the 1950s, and it was not a hashtag. It began with a police stop.

The Evening Star of Washington described how it worked in 1960. Louisiana had set May 3 as Tourist Appreciation Day, and every city and town in the state was asked to join.

CHAPTER 01

A key to the city instead of a ticket

Police in each town watched for an out-of-state plate and pulled the car over. The driver was not arrested but handed, in the paper's words, "a day of royal entertainment by local citizens." The year before, 71 Louisiana cities and towns had joined in.

Two years later a Pascagoula family passing through Lockport was stopped and made honorary citizens of Louisiana. Mayor Nolan E. Toups gave them keys to the city and a seafood luncheon. The local paper called it the town's sixth annual tourist appreciation day.

CHAPTER 02

The week that got a law

Washington acted at the level of the week, not the day. Don Ritter of Pennsylvania introduced a joint resolution in 1983. It became law that November, designating the week beginning May 27, 1984, as National Tourism Week.

Congress wrote its reasoning into the law's preamble. Travel and tourism, it found, was the second largest US retail industry in 1981, measured by business receipts, if viewed as one industry. President Reagan proclaimed that first week the following February.

CHAPTER 03

Named on the floor, then not

The earliest located mention of the day itself comes eight years after that proclamation. Ritter rose again in 1992, this time for the day rather than the week. Four years later John Warner marked it in the Senate, minutes after a bill to move tourism promotion to a nongovernmental body went to the desk.

Farr's minute is the last one a search of the Congressional Record turns up. What survives instead is a listing: an Internet Archive capture from 2006 shows the day fixed to a single May date, above the site's own note that its research had not found the creator. That search covered federal records and a newspaper archive ending in 1963, so an earlier trace could surface and a state or city proclamation would fall outside it.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Louisiana sets its own tourist day

The Evening Star reported that Louisiana had set May 3 as Tourist Appreciation Day, with every city and town in the state asked to take part.

Congress designates a tourism week

A joint resolution introduced by Rep. Don Ritter of Pennsylvania became law and designated the week beginning May 27, 1984, as National Tourism Week.

Reagan proclaims the first week

Proclamation 5149 called on Americans to observe that week with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

The day reaches the House floor

Two members named National Tourist Appreciation Day in the Congressional Record on May 6, the earliest mention of it located.

A senator marks it mid-bill

John Warner told the Senate on May 8 that the day fell that week, as a bill to move US tourism promotion to a nongovernmental body was introduced.

Farr marks it in the House

Sam Farr told the House on May 7 that the week around the day was National Tourism Week, in the last of the three entries located.

Today marks National Tourist Appreciation Day during National Tourism Week. It is a small tribute to this job-impacted industry, which is the second leading provider of jobs in this Nation ... and the third largest retail industry, giving the United States a $21 billion trade surplus.

John WarnerUnited States Senator for Virginia, on the Senate floor, May 8, 1996

Mr. Speaker, as the author of the original National Tourism Week in 1984, I am pleased to take to the floor today to call attention to this ninth National Tourism Week and, more specifically, to today as we celebrate National Tourist Appreciation Day.

Don RitterUnited States Representative for Pennsylvania, in the House, May 6, 1992

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why National Tourist Appreciation Day Matters

MEASUREMENT

US travel exports in 2024 also counted air fares and education.

The National Travel and Tourism Office recorded more than $253.9 billion in US travel and tourism exports for 2024, and its own breakdown builds that total from three parts. They are visitors' spending inside the country, air fares paid to US carriers, and money spent here on education, health-related tourism and short-term work.

MODELS

The jobs figure is modelled, not counted

The US Travel Association puts the jobs travel supports at 15 million, and its own fact sheet splits that into 8 million directly in travel businesses and 7 million more through indirect impact. The modelling is credited to Tourism Economics, the association and the Department of Commerce, so it estimates effects rather than counting jobs.

DISTRICTS

Members used the day to name their districts

On the day in 1992 Scott Klug of Wisconsin used the Extensions of Remarks to name the Wisconsin Dells and Frank Lloyd Wright's House on the Rock as sites he said drew visitors to his Madison district. He told the House that Wisconsin had attracted over 330,000 international tourists in 1990, a figure he gave without citing a source.

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe National Tourist Appreciation Day

Read the record for yourself

The day has an entry in the Congressional Record and it is short enough to read in full. The 1997 House entry shows how a member of Congress described it.

ASK

Ask what a tourism figure actually counts

Before repeating a number about visitor spending, open the publisher's own page and read what the total covers. The National Travel and Tourism Office publishes a component breakdown beside every monthly headline figure.

THANK

Thank someone whose work depends on visitors

Hotel desks, museum front rooms, park staff and restaurant floors all run on people who came from somewhere else. A specific thank you costs nothing, and the day gives you a reason to say it out loud.

PLAY

Play tourist in the town you live in

Louisiana's mid-century Tourist Appreciation Day worked by treating a stranger as a guest for a day. Turn that around and spend an afternoon somewhere in your own area you have never been.

CHECK

Check when the tourism week actually falls

National Travel and Tourism Week is a separate observance, and the US Travel Association publishes the dates it runs on. Looking them up stops the two from blurring together.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Tourist Appreciation Day?

1 / 7

The three Congressional Record mentions of National Tourist Appreciation Day fall on different dates. What do those dates share?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no federal designation, so it is a normal working day, and a search of the Federal Register from 1994 to the present returns nothing that names it.