The Woodlands Township’s tourism office will host a travel-focused celebration at Market Street’s Spring Fine Arts Show on May 4 to mark the start of National Travel and Tourism Week.

Visit The Woodlands, the township convention and visitors bureau, will occupy a tent at the arts festival to provide educational information for visitors. Visit The Woodlands will give away a family ticket package for The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion and signed The Woodlands-themed artwork alongside live demonstrations by local sketch artist Judith Dollar. The booth also features games and activities for children.

Visit The Woodlands holds its Sunday celebration in conjunction with the national travel week promoted by the U.S. Travel Association May 5-11. The theme of 2019’s National Travel and Tourism Week is “Travel Matters,” recognizing the tourism industry’s local influence, according to an April news release.

“This week, we are celebrating what travel means to our community—since the first village of Grogan’s Mill opened in 1974 to present day,” Visit The Woodlands President Nick Wolda said in the news release. “We’re calling on everyone from elected officials to local residents to join us in saluting this important industry and to support travel-friendly legislation that supports our local, state and national economies.”

Around 4,100 people are employed in The Woodlands in the tourism industry through jobs in air travel, hotels, restaurants, attractions and retail, the travel bureau said. The Woodlands’ tourism industry also supports workers in fields such as construction, manufacturing and finance, according to the release.

According to Visit The Woodlands, the township gathered $8.9 million in hotel occupancy taxes in 2018. And in 2017, it took in around $13 million in local sales tax revenue from the $370 million spent by visitors to The Woodlands.

For more information about the event, see the Visit the Woodlands webpage. Other events happening this weekend include a performance by Houston Ballet dancers at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion.