Historic Civil Rights Sites Targeted | National Parks Week
Canadian Travel Boycott | National Heritage Area Funding | Good Reads
Today’s Washington Post has an article, Freedom Riders faced a mob at this bus station. DOGE wanted to sell it, on the Montgomery, Alabama bus station that had been placed on the listing of government properties to be sold and the effort to preserve the historic site. The listing of the historic site has sparked concerns that other civil rights sites could also be targeted. That is one reason why I’ve been pushing back on the NPS lease terminations for visitor centers, which are widely seen as a test balloon for selling other NPS properties.
The proposed sale of the Montgomery bus station has also powered legislation to protect other civil rights landmarks. Last month Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) and Rep. Shomari Figures (D-AL), introduced the Civil Rights Landmark Protection Act, H.R. 2046, which would prohibit the sale of all federal-owned sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places unless Congress passes a resolution approving the sale.
The press release on the bill’s introduction can be read here. The text of H.R. 2046 can be read here.
National Park Week kicks off on Sunday, April 19 and runs through April 27. This year's theme of National Park Playlist celebrates musical connections to national parks and the American story. Many of the tourism communities that subscribe to this newsletter have musical histories and this is a great time to showcase those cultural assets. To support National Park Week, NPS is running a clever playlist social media campaign that can be viewed here.
Forbes reports the Canadian boycott on travel to the U.S. is escalating. New data from Statistics Canada, which found the number of Canadians traveling to the U.S. by car, fell by 32% compared to March 2024. The article also includes this fun fact: “$20.5 billion. That’s how much Canadian travelers spent in the U.S. in 2024. To put that number into perspective, it’s nearly double the $10.4 billion that Americans spent at McDonald’s last year.” The full article can be read here.
National Heritage Areas are an increasingly important piece of many states’ tourism infrastructure. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) and Rep. G.T. Thompson (R-PA) have reached out to this tourism advocacy network to request our support for a sign on letter to the leadership of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies requesting full funding of $33.5 million for the National Heritage Area Program in FY2026. A Dear Colleague letter was distributed today to every member of the House of Representatives and Rep. Tonko and Rep. and Thompson have asked that tourism leaders weigh in with their congressional representatives to encourage them to sign on. The letter to Appropriators is pasted below. The deadline to sign is COB on Thursday, April 24, 2025. Requests for more information or to sign onto the letter, should be directed to Clara Tibbetts with Rep. Tonko at Clara.Tibbetts@mail.house.gov, or Connor Rose with Rep. Thompson at Connor.Rose@mail.house.gov.
Good Reads
Travel Weekly has an interesting article on the rising popularity of literary tourism.
Axios has a piece on why the Virginia Tourism Corporation declined to participate in the upcoming Michelin Guide to the U.S. South. The story also has some interesting background on the influential guide to restaurants.