ATTA Press Releases
ATTA Expands Membership Benefits, Introduces Legal Document Templates for Tour Operators
May 10, 2012
Seattle, WA – With the expertise of attorneys Mona McPhee of McPhee Law Office, and Chun Wright of the Law Office of Chun T. Wright, PLLC, the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) today added to its expanding member benefits portfolio a series of company and customer legal templates and tip sheets. Intended primarily for small- and medium-sized tour operators, the new benefit builds upon the ATTA’s increasing array of cost-saving operational services provided to its members, including the recent additions of reduced-fee services such as credit card processing, e-commerce transactions, mobile payments and currency conversion. ATTA’s new legal tools also join other specialized offerings including customer insurance and evacuation services for ATTA members’ clients. For its first round of legal templates, the ATTA has introduced the following documents designed to give ATTA members a foundation upon which to draft their own documents that accurately reflect their company... Read More →
ATTA Press Releases Media Buzz
Spate of Adventure Travel Media Coverage Captures Center Stage Nationally
April 17, 2012
Adventure tourism’s recent flurry of earned editorial media coverage in major media outlets throughout the U.S. lends more credence to mounting evidence that suggests “adventure” is gaining favor as a top choice among travelers. Between April and May 2012 alone, adventure travel is featured prominently in Travel + Leisure, National Geographic Traveler, Outside Magazine and Men’s Journal, as well as in the April 14 and 15 2012 feature stories in The Wall Street Journal and The Seattle Times respectively. And, it’s no accident. In addition to supporting trends suggesting that travelers are awakening to more responsible tourism choices, that there are more innovative product/itinerary options, that lifestyles are changing and leaning more toward enriching, in-depth travel experiences and healthier activities, to name just a few, the ATTA and its membership is working behind the scenes with travel journalists internationally to provide expert voices, resources and brand new subject... Read More →
ATTA Press Releases
Shay Mitchell Adventure Travel Experiences Deliver Impressive Digital Footprint ATTA Finds Success with “Pretty Little Liars” Star
March 23, 2012
Shay Mitchell's official Facebook page, featuring pictures of Ireland. Seattle, WA – The Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) announces a recent success in developing its first creative partnership between a tour operator member, a destination member and a celebrity agency in Los Angeles that maximizes social media outreach, covering actress Shay Mitchell’s recent trip to Ireland. Even at the outset of the project, thousands of people have ‘liked’ the photos and stories and hundreds have commented, showing the power of social media to tell stories about a style of travel that has transformational capabilities, such as Mitchell’s mud-covered run in the Ireland countryside and an ATTA member-guided sea kayaking experience. Mitchell, who stars as Emily Fields in the hit television series, “Pretty Little Liars” —America’s top scripted basic cable series with an audience of 18-34 year old women —yesterday visited ATTA member Fáilte Ireland and toured with Vagabond... Read More →
ATTA Press Releases
American Tourism Society Joins Forces with the Adventure Travel Trade Association
March 15, 2012
Seattle, WA— With nearly 800 members representing 82 countries, the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) today announced that the American Tourism Society (ATS), a member-based tourism trade organization has joined with ATTA to bring to ATTA its geographic specialization within The Baltics, Central Europe, The Mediterranean/Red Sea, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). In December 2011, the ATS Board of Directors, joined by the ATS Chairman Emeritus Alex Harris, unanimously voted in favor of dissolving the ATS entity and encouraging its members to transition into the ATTA. Effective immediately, the ATTA-ATS agreement allows the 59 influential members of the ATS to transition into the ATTA, an association offering a similar mission, membership framework and fee structure. Don Reynolds, former executive vice president of ATS, has been retained to aid in the transition and to handle ATS member inquiries. The ATTA has emerged in recent years as an active, recognized... Read More →
ATTA Press Releases
Chiefs of UNWTO, Google Travel, Blue Legacy, WWF International and PEAK Adventures to Keynote at 2012 Adventure Travel World Summit
March 6, 2012
(SEATTLE) — At the 9th Adventure Travel World Summit (ATWS) October 8-11, 2012, in Lucerne, Switzerland, presented by the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) and sponsored by Switzerland Tourism and Lucerne Tourism, Dr. Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Rob Torres, Managing Director of Travel at Google, Alexandra Cousteau, granddaughter of Yves-Jacques Cousteau and co-founder of Blue Legacy, Jim Leape, Director General of WWF International, the global conservation organization, and Darrell Wade, CEO of PEAK Adventure Travel, will headline before more than 600 industry executives representing more than 50 nations. Keynote speakers will support the ATTA’s recurring, “Prosper with Purpose” Summit theme, addressing topics regarding pressing issues of the tourism industry today, including the interplay between conservation and the business of tourism, to consumer behavior, mobile technology and the Web. In his first appearance at an ATWS,... Read More →
ATTA Press Releases
ATTA European Director to Host Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Day at ITB Berlin Convention
February 22, 2012
Seattle, WA – ITB convention organizers have selected the Adventure Travel Trade Association’s (ATTA) Executive Director of Europe and Editor of AdventureTravelNews Christopher Doyle, to host the convention’s fourth annual Corporate Social Responsibility Day on March 8, 2012. Doyle, who leads the European region of the adventure tourism industry’s global trade association which advocates for the responsible and sustainable development of the growing sector, will navigate panel conversations which address concepts, examples of best practices and the economic prospects for sustainable and responsible tourism. Sessions for the CSR day, which will be held between 10:25-18:00 in Hall 7.1a, Auditorium New York 3, include: Challenges and Concepts for Managing Accessible Tourism Accessible Tourism Human Rights in the Tourism Industry – What Are the Demands, What Can Be Achieved? Sustainable Tourism Certification Programs – Are There Too Many? Green Cities: A Vision, or the... Read More →
ATTA Press Releases
Adventure Travel Trade Association Introduces New Advisory Board Members
February 9, 2012
Seattle, WA – The Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) has appointed three new members to its Advisory Board, including Ms. Malia Asfour, Director of the Jordan Tourism Board in North America (JTBNA), Bill Bryan, President, Off the Beaten Path, and Richard G. Edwards, Founder of ecoism. Francis X. Farrell, CEO of Turnstile Media, Perry Lungmus, Vice President, Luxury Travel at Luxury Leaders, Russell Walters, President of Northern Outdoors, each of whom served on the ATTA Advisory Board for more than five years, will transition to Emeritus status. Antonio del Rosal, who has served on the ATTA Advisory Board for two years, has transitioned to the new role of ATTA Executive Director – Latin America. Asfour represents a country with which the ATTA has enjoyed a long partnership, while Bryan’s nationally acclaimed travel planning service handles outdoor adventure in some of the world’s leading adventure territories. Edwards, cited by Conde Nast Traveler as a Top Travel Specialist,... Read More →
ATTA Press Releases Featured Article
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 →
ATTA Press Releases
Adventure Travel Trade Association Releases 1H 2012 North America Regional Meeting Schedule
February 1, 2012
Seattle, WA—The Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) announces its regional meeting schedule for 2012; in order to further enhance its member services, the ATTA built much of the 2012 schedule for its North American Regional Meetings next to each other, stringing five Regional events together in a 14-day period. This will allow any ATTA member to utilize these events as a platform to build a North American ‘roadshow’ around these dates. Dates for the Regional gatherings are: 18-Apr ATTA Regional New York City @ Men’s Journal Magazine Office /3-5pm 24-Apr ATTA Regional Denver @ Boulder REI, 3-5pm 26-Apr ATTA Regional Seattle @ Eddie Bauer Headquarters, 3-5pm 1-May ATTA Regional Vancouver, Canada @ venue / time TBA 3-May ATTA Regional San Francisco @ Sports Basement, 2-5pm Casual networking will continue with post-meeting AdventureDrinks events in each city. The ATTA will be delivering key news and information at each meeting regarding the state of the industry,... Read More →
ATTA Press Releases
Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2011: ATTA’s Report on the Adventure Travel HUB
August 15, 2011
Productive partnership meetings took place at the Adventure Travel Hub. The Adventure Travel Hub, brought to the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market by the Adventure Travel Trade Association for the second consecutive year, was the confluence for more than 35 meetings between outdoor gear and apparel brands with the world-class adventure tourism destinations of Norway, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mexico and Belize. The meetings, cultivated by ATTA through its extensive network, were designed to help foster creative partnerships and innovative marketing promotions between the adventure travel industry and the outdoor industry, whose overlapping interests and areas of expertise make for rich, synergistic outreach and branding initiatives. ATTA also fostered meetings with the destinations with over a dozen top media executives to introduce and foster new editorial content in publications such as National Geographic Traveler, Men’s Journal, Audubon and many more. Doyle and Stowell present on Tapping into... Read More →
