The need for effective advocacy for the tourism industry has never been greater, yet coordinated efforts to share the value of tourism and demonstrate how policy change impacts the industry remain limited. Greater understanding of the obstacles that restrict these coordinated advocacy efforts is needed. This study illustrates how multiple definitions of advocacy may contribute to disparate efforts among different tourism stakeholders. Data from semi-structured interviews with 23 state-level tourism leaders, from both destination marketing/management organizations and tourism trade associations, revealed 3 different conceptualizations of tourism advocacy: advocacy as lobbying, advocacy as education; and advocacy as communicating the value of tourism. Through these findings, we propose that defining advocacy as communication of the value of tourism to multiple stakeholders would be one strategy to unify advocacy efforts and increase their efficacy for the tourism industry.