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The ATTA team at the 2011 Summit in Chiapas.

Adventure Travel Trade Association Unveils Regionalization Strategy, Promotes Internal Veterans to New Posts

February 8, 2012

The ATTA team at the 2011 Summit in Chiapas. Seattle, WA.— Responding to its diverse and growing base of nearly 800 businesses and tourism organization members representing 82 countries – up from approximately 100 members and a dozen countries in 2005, the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) today unveiled the first-phase of a multi-year regionalization strategy designed to better address the destination-specific needs, challenges and opportunities of leaders pursuing responsible adventure tourism development worldwide. For its initial phase, the ATTA is intensifying attention on Europe, Latin America, Australia/New Zealand and North America in 2012, which will be followed in a later stage by increased specialization in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and other adventure-rich destinations. Its early geographic focus brings increased support to areas where the ATTA has established a foothold – areas that the organization recognizes as requiring deeper support and specialization... Read More →

2012 At a Glance: Travel Trends by Region

January 18, 2012

By Nicole Petrak, Assistant Editor to AdventureTravelNews & Special Projects to ATTA Note: AdventureTravelNews offers the following piece as a general geographic overview of global tourism trends as we begin 2012. The trends and themes mentioned here will be covered in more detailed reports in the coming months, along with new topics of interest as they arise. Please submit to editor@adventuretravel.biz relevant trend ideas, resources, reports and other information you believe the ATTA should consider to better inform the adventure tourism industry. Credit: Flickr user M4D GROUP 2011 was a turbulent year for the world, and thus for travel. Disruptions in weather, politics, economics, fuel prices and technologies stole the scene. While economic recovery appeared to steady itself early in the year, since then, the far-reaching, European debt crisis and financial stagnation in the U.S. economy continues to cast shadows and uncertainty. The World Travel Market (WTM) 2011 Global Trends... Read More →

Gamification – Coming Soon to an Adventure Near You?

December 14, 2011

No longer the dominion of geeky young men, gaming has hit the mainstream with people of all ages playing on smartphones, tablets, Wii’s and more. How airlines, hotels, tour operators and more are turning players into customers. Editor’s Note: The following “gamification” trend piece is offered for awareness building versus an explicit recommendation to pursue the concept. Future ATN articles are expected to provide more background and examples about how gamification is and/or might be applied in the adventure tourism sector. By Nicole Petrak, Assistant Editor & Special Projects to ATTA The buzz around ‘gamification’ has been building for awhile, with research and strategic consulting firms like Gartner (technology specialization) and M2 Research (gaming specialization) predicting the trend will soon become widely popular across most major industries. The term ‘gamification’ means taking gaming dynamics and applying them to other areas – business,... Read More →

President Felipe Calderón’s Transcripted Speech for the Opening of the 2011 Adventure Travel World Summit

November 1, 2011

Assistant Editor’s Note: President Felipe Calderon inaugurated the 2011 Adventure Travel World Summit, opening the event for 600+ tourism industry executives in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico on October 17th, 2011. The following is the transcript of his powerful speech; the video is below. Read the press release. Thank you. Kind friends. I hope you enjoy Tuxtla Gutiérrez, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, all of Chiapas and all Mexico. Thank you for coming. I greet my friend, Juan Sabines Guerrero, Governor of the State. I appreciate your words, Governor. Also, I want to welcome and thank Mr. Shannon Stowell, President of the Adventure Travel Trade Association for his presence and trust. I greet Victoria Cecilia Flores, Mayor of San Cristobal. General Cuauhtémoc Antúnez, Commander of the VII Military Zone. Judge Juan Gabriel Coutiño, President of the State´s Supreme Court. And Deputy Zoé Robledo Aburto, President of the Congress. Very distinguished guests. Very distinguished... Read More →

Adventure Travel World Summit ATWS Press Releases Featured Article

Lucerne, Switzerland Selected to Host the 2012 Adventure Travel World Summit

September 27, 2011

(SAN FRANCISCO/TORONTO) – SEPTEMBER 27, 2011 – Lucerne, the famous resort town at the shores of Lake Lucerne in the heart of Switzerland, right at foot of Mount Pilatus and the Alps, has won the bid to serve as Destination Host to the Adventure Travel Trade Association’s (ATTA) ninth annual Adventure Travel World Summit (ATWS). Expected to draw 600 adventure tourism professionals from more than 50 nations, the ATWS will be held October 8-11, 2012 at the KKL Luzern (Culture and Congress Centre), built by renowned architect Jean Nouvel. Announced by the ATTA and Switzerland Tourism officials today during events in San Francisco and Toronto, the ATTA reported its decision came after extensive review of several sites throughout the world. In addition to meeting all prerequisites outlined in the bidding process, Lucerne won the 2012 ATWS bid primarily for its long-standing partnership with the ATTA and readiness to share its extensive experience in modern adventure travel and tourism,... Read More →

Where Luxury, Conservation and Adventure Intersect: Q&A with Neil Rogers of Francis Ford Coppola Resorts

August 16, 2011

By Nicole Petrak, Assistant Editor to AdventureTravelNews and Special Projects for the Adventure Travel Trade Association Neil Rogers is both the Director of Marketing for Francis Ford Coppola Resorts and a sustainable tourism specialist consulting on a wide range of global projects. Neil has been working with experiential travel and sustainable tourism for the last 25-years. He fell in love with Latin America on a post-University 18-month overland bus trip from Mexico City to Tierra del Fuego and back to Caracas. Working as a tour guide for the next five years he explored the remotest corners of the continent and soon graduated to the position of tours manager of Journey Latin America in London. In 1989 he moved to Belize to manage the award winning Lodge at Chaa Creek. In 1991 Rogers was on the planning committee for the Caribbean’s first Ecotourism Conference held in Belize City and later attended the First International Eco-lodge Development Forum held at Maho Bay, US Virgin... Read More →

Generation Y: Soon-to-Be Your Next Best Customers

July 12, 2011

By Nicole Petrak, Assistant Editor to AdventureTravelNews & Special Projects for ATTA Assistant Editor’s Note: This piece is the second of three installments for the ATTA’s third quarterly trends reports for 2011. The first is Content: Where Media and Commerce Intersect in the New Age of Marketing; the third installment will follow next week. The Adventure Market Sizing Study, a joint effort in 2009 between the Adventure Travel Trade Association and Xola Consulting, found that Generation Y travelers tended to engage in independent and budget travel outside the scope of most tour operators, due to a much more “do-it-yourself attitude” because of their budget constraints, confidence using the web to plan trips and familiarity with travel due to exposure in childhood on family vacations. U.K. travel website and specialists Travelmatch claims this trend is shifting. They reported in May that Gen Y consumers are traveling in their highest numbers yet, and more importantly,... Read More →

Leading U.S.-based Tourism Organizations Urge Texas to Change Mexico Travel Warning to an Advisory

June 14, 2011

Productive dialogue between government and industry for travel alerts Austin, Texas –Spearheaded by the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA), the United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA), the National Tour Association (NTA), and the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) delivered a joint request to the Texas Department of Public Safety to contextualize Texas’ travel warnings to Mexico and ultimately to have these warnings downgraded to advisories. Shannon Stowell, President, ATTA & Ricardo Anaya, Undersecretary of Tourism Planning, SECTUR The four organizations, which ultimately represent 20 million US outbound travelers, joined forces to respond to the travel warnings issued by the Texas Government over the course of 2011, viewing the warnings as too generic and thus counterproductive. The collective opposition to the Texas perspective was generated because of the recent Texas Department of Public Safety statements, which implied that there were problems in more... Read More →

Championing the Soul of Travel

August 17, 2010

Bill Bryan, Co-Founder & Chairman of Off the Beaten Path, presenting at July's ATTA Regional Meeting in Montana Editor’s Note: Bill Bryan, a long-time advocate of the ATTA and a 2010 Adventure Travel World Summit Advisory Committee member, first contacted the ATTA about, “Championing the Soul of Travel” following the 2009 ATWS. Then in February 2010, Bill joined ATTA’s President Shannon Stowell and Vice President Chris Doyle in Washington, D.C., to bring a voice to adventure tourism within the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Travel and Tourism Industries. Following those sessions, the three discussed the concept of the “soul” of travel. It’s a concept that Bill presented at the ATTA’s Montana Regional Meeting in June – a concept well received by attendees and that stimulated meaty discussion. Here, we solicit your comments to Bill’s perspectives, and ask that you “sound off” so that we know your... Read More →

Q&A with Praveen Moman from Volcanoes Safaris

August 12, 2010

Recently, Shannon Stowell, president of the Adventure Travel Trade Association, and Praveen Moman from Volcanoes Safaris were having a discussion that stemmed from the Adventure Travel World Summit in Québec, Canada 2009. They were talking about how companies can practically pursue sustainability and responsibility and also be profitable businesses. Curiosity got the better of Shannon and he quizzed Praveen on a number of practices that Volcanoes pursues. This has been published with permission in hopes of shedding light for other operators who might face similar issues: Read More → Read More →