U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) have introduced a bill to help promote music tourism throughout the country. The American Music Tourism Act is aimed at sparking international tourism that has declined since the pandemic. In what is a national effort, the act will identify locations and events in the U.S. that are important to music tourism.
The act classifies music tourism as the act of traveling to a state or locality to visit historic or modern-day music related attractions including museums, studios, venues of all sizes and other sites related to music.
From an EDM perspective, I feel like we do our part here. Our community is constantly traveling to new states for festival’s like Ultra, EDC, Bonnaroo, Coachella, Lost Lands, etc.
If passed, the act would strengthen the economic benefits of music festivals like Tennessee’s Bonarroo or California’s Stagecoach. It will also support music venues from Madison Square Garden to Bluebird Cafe in Nashville.
The American Music Tourism Act would leverage this existing framework within the Department of Commerce to highlight and promote music tourism in the United States with the act requiring the assistant secretary to submit their findings, achievements and activities to the congressional and senate committees within one year of its passage and every year thereafter.
