Cultural tourism is based on the mosaic of places, traditions, art forms, celebrations and experiences that portray this nation and its people, reflecting the diversity and character of the United States. Garrison Keillor, in an address to the 1995 White House Conference on Travel & Tourism, best described cultural tourism by saying, "We need to think about cultural tourism because really there is no other kind of tourism. It's what tourism is...People don't come to America for our airports, people don't come to America for our hotels, or the recreation facilities....They come for our culture: high culture, low culture, middle culture, right, left, real or imagined -- they come here to see America."

Two significant travel trends will dominate the tourism market in the next decade.

• Mass marketing is giving way to one-to-one marketing with travel being tailored to the interests of the individual consumer.
• A growing number of visitors are becoming special interest travelers who rank the arts, heritage and/or other cultural activities as one of the top five reasons for traveling.

The combination of these two trends is being fueled by technology, through the proliferation of online services and tools, making it easier for the traveler to choose destinations and customize their itineraries based on their interests.

Broadening participation in the arts, increasing opportunities for artists, preserving and promoting our cultural resources and investing in communities' quality of life are among the reasons state arts agencies are key players in supporting and leading cultural tourism initiatives. State arts agencies are developing successful strategies linking the arts and tourism in communities across the country. Successful cultural tourism projects depend on collaboration, assessment, research, marketing and visitor service.