Proclamation 5658

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

Today, as always, travelers from our country and overseas cross the United States to meet the American people, to see our cities, plains, and natural wonders, and to visit the historic sites of our Nation. We do well each year to pay tribute to tourism for all it means to our way of life and to understanding and friendship among people of many lands.

Travelers in the United States truly have a panorama of opportunities before them. This year, as we celebrate the Bicentennial of the Constitution, let us remember that the record of the winning and keeping of our precious liberties is written all across the face of our beautiful land. In countless American places-courtyards and country lanes, fields and forts, monuments and memorials, battlefields and bridges, cemeteries and sanctuaries, hills and homes and halls-we can ever read the struggles and sacrifices of a people and a glorious cause. That is nowhere more true than in Philadelphia, the home of so much of the history of liberty and our headquarters for the Bicentennial of the Constitution.

Let us always be sure to offer heartfelt welcome to the tourists we meet as they discover for themselves how America became the land of the free and the home of the brave.

In recognition of the educational, economic, and recreational benefits of tourism, the Congress, by Public Law 99-394, has designated the week beginning May 17, 1987, as "National Tourism Week" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this event.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning May 17, 1987, as National Tourism Week. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this week with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this eighteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eleventh.

RONALD REAGAN

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:45 a.m., May 19, 1987]