The American Association of Museums (AAM), the Museum Store Association (MSA) and the U.S. Cultural and Heritage Tourism Marketing Council (USCHT) are collaborating to promote cultural travel to and within the United States. The three organizations aim to increase visitation to cultural and historic sites through targeted travel marketing avenues.

U.S. Department of Commerce Office of Travel & Tourism and Travel Industry Association research shows that cultural and heritage tourism is the #3 tourism activity in the United States. Their studies also confirm that cultural and heritage travelers are more affluent, travel more frequently, stay longer in a destination and seek out unique cultural and heritage experiences.

"We look forward to this innovative collaboration with the Museum Store Association and U.S. Cultural & Heritage Tourism Marketing Council," said Ford W. Bell, president of AAM. "Cultural travel is a priority for museum visitors and a key strategy for AAM members to help boost visitation."

The three organizations are coordinating plans for The Cultural Traveler Pavilion that will premiere at the American Association of Museum's annual conference in April 2009 in Philadelphia. Building on "The Museum Experiment" theme, the pavilion will showcase the USCHT Marketing Council's CultureToursAndMore.com partners in destinations including Philadelphia and promote cultural tourism marketing strategies in an educational and entertaining format on the AAM tradeshow floor. "The Cultural Traveler Pavilion will be an exciting interactive showcase," said Sheila Armstrong, executive director of the U.S. Cultural & Heritage Tourism Marketing Council. "Reaching out collaboratively to the cultural travel segment, we can compound our efforts to cultivate this audience that appreciates the many cultural and heritage treasures of our country and invite them to experience them more frequently."

MSA and USCHT Marketing Council also will launch The Cultural Traveler, an exclusive new publication and Web site, in the first quarter of 2009. This tourism-focused guidebook is devoted to cultural and heritage tourism and celebrates the leading museums, historic sites and museum stores throughout the United States. AAM and its members will be showcased in the guidebook and Web site. Participants include Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center; Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum, Auburn, IN; Barona Cultural Center & Museum, Lakeside, CA; The Children's Museum of Indianapolis; Foundation for the National Archives, Washington, DC; Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM; Gray Line; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles Convention & Visitor Bureau; Minnesota Historical Society; Missouri Historical Society; New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science; New York Transit Museum; The North Carolina Arboretum; Pasadena Convention & Visitors Bureau; Saint Louis Art Museum; Springs Preserve - Las Vegas; Walter Anderson Museum of Art, Ocean Springs, MS; Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA; and the de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA.

"The Cultural Traveler will be distributed to thousands of consumers, tour operators, travel agents and travel media interested in cultural travel and museum store shopping. By increasing awareness and interest in visiting museums and museum stores as unique cultural destinations, the publication also will help drive attendance at cultural institutions in general," said Beverly Barsook, executive director of the Museum Store Association.

Exposure to the tourism market will be further enhanced by an online version of The Cultural Traveler, featuring direct links to participants' Web sites and other tourism content at www.Museum-Store.travel. "The American Association of Museums will have a featured link on The Cultural Traveler Web site, providing access to all AAM member listings, thus facilitating ease of access to information for cultural travel planning," Barsook noted.

The American Association of Museums has been bringing museums together since 1906, helping to develop standards and best practices, gathering and sharing knowledge, and providing advocacy on issues of concern to the entire museum community. With more than 15,000 individual, 3,000 institutional and 300 corporate members, AAM is dedicated to ensuring that museums remain a vital part of the American landscape, connecting people with the greatest achievements of the human experience, past, present and future. Museum Store Association is a nonprofit, international association organized to advance the success of museum retail professionals. By encouraging high standards of professionalism, MSA helps cultural commerce professionals better serve their organizations. MSA also is focused on helping increase awareness about museum stores as unique shopping destinations for tourists and cultural travelers.

As part of a strategic alliance with the U.S. Cultural & Heritage Tourism Marketing Council (USCHT) and Shop America Alliance (SAA), MSA provides expertise in the cultural and heritage tourism arena to its members and the general public. U.S. Cultural and Heritage Tourism Marketing Council is a travel trade association with a mission to package, market and sell U.S. cultural and heritage tourism experiences both nationally and internationally. The Marketing Council represents leading U.S. tourism destinations, attractions and travel partners engaged in marketing U.S. cultural and heritage to travelers throughout the United States and around the world. Partners include the U.S. Department of Commerce / Office of Travel & Tourism Industries, California Travel & Tourism Commission, VISIT FLORIDA, the Museum Store Association, The Henry Ford, Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Council, Atlanta CVB, New Orleans CVB, Hilton Head CVB and Shop America Alliance.

Group travel friendly museums.

Collette Vacations just introduced its 2009 season, offering more guaranteed departure dates than ever before. Customers can look for many new types of programs and new destinations―Turkey, Morocco and Jordan. The destination roster spans seven continents and Collette’s three brands, including its small tour division, Explorations by Collette, and its Smithsonian Journeys Travel Adventures learning tours, both of which have been expanded due to increased consumer demand.

“In response to travel trends we saw developing in the escorted tour market,” says Melissa Famiglietti Snape, vice president of product, “we’ve developed four new tours that feature a rail component, including Eastern Rail Odyssey – which travels the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. – and Beautiful British Columbia which features the Rocky Mountaineer Train’s Fraser Discovery Route."

“Four new programs were developed featuring U.S.-based destinations, fulfilling a demand for travel closer to home,” Snape added. “Domestic travel is really surging, though there is still a strong demand for international destinations – especially to exotic places like Morocco and Jordan. Also, we’ve launched an all-Australia small group program this year, which affords travelers more time for in-depth exploration and discovery in one of our top destinations.”

Daniel Sullivan, Jr., president and CEO of Collette Vacations, emphasizes India’s growth this year as well. “Last year, we launched our first program to visit India, and as the 2009 season takes off, more and more people want to go there; it’s really on the map now.”

Sullivan also notes that Oberammergau, famous for its once-in-a-decade Passion Play, is being featured in five 2010 European itineraries centered around the performance. “It’s already selling incredibly well; the limited engagement of this historic event is one of the driving forces for customers in the coming travel season.”

New Collette Vacations tours:
• Eastern Rail Odyssey, 8 days • 10 meals Starting at $2149*
• Cruise the Bays & Railways of New England, 10 days • 16 meals
Starting at $1899
• Colors of New England, 8 days • 10 meals  Starting at $1899
• Historic Trains of California, 10 days • 14 meals Starting at $2099
• Beautiful British Columbia, 11 days • 15 meals Starting at $3299
• Coastal Ireland, 13 days • 18 meals   Starting at $2399
• France and Bavaria, 10 days • 12 meals Starting at $2049

New Explorations by Collette tours:

• Journey through Jordan & Egypt, 15 days • 24 meals
Starting at $2899*
• Treasures of Spain, 11 days • 17 meals Starting at $2849
• Australian Adventure, 18 days • 23 meals Starting at $4199

New Smithsonian Journeys Travel Adventures tours:
• Crossroads of Sicily, 11 days • 15 meals Starting at $2299*
• Mediterranean Spain & Morocco, 13 days • 19 meals
 Starting at $3449
• Classical Turkey, 12 days • 19 meals  Starting at $2199

To view day-by-day itineraries and available departure dates, visit Collette’s website at www.collettevacations.com.

*Prices are starting at, per person, land only, based on double occupancy.

The Saint Louis Art Museum has announced the Feb. 22 opening of Power and Glory: Court Arts of China’s Ming Dynasty, the first exhibition of its kind to focus on the art from China’s Ming dynasty (1368–1644).
 
Featuring more than 125 magnificent works including porcelain, paintings, textiles, lacquerware, jade and precious metals, this groundbreaking exhibition explores the grandeur and opulence of one of the most important dynasties in Chinese history. The objects include not only artifacts made by imperial manufacturers but also paintings created by emperors and other high ranking officials. Many are on view for the first time outside of China.
 
Works in the exhibition are drawn from three of China’s most prestigious institutions—The Palace Museum, Beijing; the Nanjing Municipal Museum; and the Shanghai Museum—along with objects from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Saint Louis Art Museum’s own collection.
 
The exhibition runs through May 17, 2009. It was on view at Asian Art Museum of San Francisco June 27–Sept. 21, 2008, and opened at the Indianapolis Museum of Art Oct. 26.

The Saint Louis Art Museum is one of the nation's leading comprehensive art museums with collections that include works of art of exceptional quality from virtually every culture and time period. Areas of notable depth include Oceanic art, pre-Columbian art, ancient Chinese bronzes, and European and American art of the late 19th and 20th centuries, with particular strength in 20th-century German art. (314-721-0072 or visit www.slam.org)
 

For the third straight year, Ghosts of Gettysburg has been voted the Best Ghost Tour in the Country by the readers of Haunted America Tours. Ghosts of Gettysburg is owned and operated by well-known ghost investigator Mark Nesbitt, who has also been named the No. 1 Paranormal Investigator for 2008-2009.

In addition, Nesbitt was ranked third among America’s Favorite Haunted Authors.

Haunted America Tours website averages more than two million hits per month. The rankings are determined through votes by visitors to the site. Gettysburg topped a list of renowned ghost tours from around the country.

Haunted America Tours said, “Nesbitt tries to gather factual data on the stories he receives so he can offer a background as to why these ghost stories may have evolved. His stories are factual and interesting.”

The following is a list of how the visitors to www.HauntedAmericaTours.com voted for their favorite ghost tour:

1. Ghosts of Gettysburg
2. Ghost Tours of Galveston Island (Texas)
3. Spellbound Tours (Salem, Mass.)
4. Haunted Haight Walking Tour (San Francisco)
5. Appalachian Ghost Walk (Tennessee)
6. Haunts of Owensboro (Kentucky)
7. Ursula Bielski’s Chicago Ghost Tours
8. Haunted Heartland Tours (Ohio)
9. Haunted Parkersburg Ghost Tours (West Virginia)
10. Ghost Tours of St. Augustine (Florida)

“I’m honored to be named the No. 1 Paranormal Investigator of the year,” said Nesbitt. “The fact that I’ve collected most of my stories from, and do most of my investigations in and around Gettysburg says something about the area as well. But I think I’m most proud of the Ghosts of Gettysburg Tours being voted No. 1 Ghost Tour in the entire country for the third year in a row. That speaks to the stories spawned in the Gettysburg area and the talented local individuals who serve as our guides.”

Nesbitt is a former National Park Service ranger/historian. He started his own research and writing company in 1977 and a year later he began writing books, including If the South Won Gettysburg.

Nesbitt conducted his first ghost walk in Gettysburg in 1994. He took his first tour through the dark streets of Gettysburg and to sites on the old Pennsylvania College campus. In addition to a series of Ghosts of Gettysburg books, his stories have appeared on The History Channel, A&E and Unsolved Mysteries. Nesbitt and the Ghosts of Gettysburg investigative team were featured in the Travel Channel’s “Mysterious Journeys: The Ghosts of Gettysburg” broadcast.

In July of 2004, his Ghosts of Gettysburg Series received the National Paranormal Award for “Best True Hauntings Collection” and “Best Local Haunt Guidebook.”

In addition to the Ghost Tour rankings, Gettysburg National Military Park was named the Most Haunted Battlefield in America and the Borough of Gettysburg was named the third Most Haunted City in America and 10th Most Haunted, Scariest Place in the World.

For a list of all rankings, visit www.hauntedamericatours.com/toptenhauntedlist.htm.