Partners in Tourism commissioned the Travel Industry Association of America to add a series of questions to its August 1998 National Travel Survey. The purpose was to determine the length of time that travelers extend their trips because of cultural activities or events. This includes those who added time either when they were planning the trip or while on the trip.

Forty-six percent of the 199.8 million U.S. adult travelers (92.4 million) included a cultural, arts, heritage, or historic activity while on a one-way trip of 50 miles or more during the past year. Visiting a historic site such as a historic community or building was the most popular cultural activity among travelers (31 percent), followed by visiting a museum (24 percent), visiting an art gallery (15 percent) and seeing live theater (14 percent).

Of the 92.4 million travelers that included a cultural activity while on a trip during the past year, 29 percent (26.7 million adults) added extra time to their trip because of this cultural activity or event. Of those 26.7 million travelers who added time:

• 61 percent added part of one day
• 30 percent added one night
• 5 percent added two extra nights
• 4 percent added three or more extra nights

Travelers who include cultural events on their trips differ from other U.S. travelers in a number of ways. They are more likely to:

• Have higher household incomes: $48,000 vs. $37,000
• Have completed college: 41 percent vs. 32 percent
• Have managerial or professional occupations: 31 percent vs. 24 percent
• Be married: 67 percent vs. 61 percent

They also share similarities to other travelers:

• gender profile: 50 percent men, 50 percent women
• 50 percent have children under age 18 living at home

Methodology

This survey was conducted by the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) as part of its National Travel Survey, a monthly phone survey. During August 1998, 1,200 computer-assisted telephone interviews were conducted with a representative sample of U.S. resident adults. These adults were contacted using a random digit dialing probability sample of all telephone households in the continental United States. The sample includes households with listed and unlisted telephone numbers in proper proportion. The data are weighted to represent the U.S. adult population using four factors: age, gender, geographic region and household size. Three-fourths of U.S. adults took a trip in the past year. Thus, questions regarding attendance at cultural activities on trips were asked to those 900 respondents. The error range for the findings is +1- 3 percentage points, at the 95 percent level of confidence.

The data findings from this survey should not be compared to those from the 1997 TravelScope Survey, Profiles of Travelers Who Participate in Historic and Cultural Activities. The reason for this is because very different methodologies were employed for the two studies. Specifically, the TravelScope Survey asked travelers only about visiting a museum, historic site or festival. The Partners in Tourism/TIA survey asked about 11 different cultural, arts, heritage, or historic activities or events.