New & Different
Creative Adventure Travel and Outdoor Recreation Industry Partnerships Yield Results
July 14, 2010
The Adventure Travel Trade Association continues to bridge the gap between outdoor and adventure travel industries by fostering three more successful partnerships between outdoor gear manufacturers and adventure destinations. By Nicole Petrak, Assistant Editor, AdventureTravelNews A meeting facilitated by ATTA at the 2009 Adventure Travel World Summit in Quebec has resulted in an in-store and online partnership between the Jordan Tourism Board North America, Marriott Hotels, and ATTA members ExOfficio and Wildland Adventures. Together they’re hosting the 2010 Jordan Adventure Sweepstakes, which culminates at the end of this month and will send the winner on a custom 9-day tour to Jordan by Wildland Adventures complete with ExOfficio Adventure Outfitting, at an approximate retail value of $15,000. The contest is currently featured on the homepages of Wildland Adventures, Jordan Tourism, and ExOfficio, and has already seen nearly 8,000 entries. 2010 Jordan Adventure Sweepstakes promotion... Read More →
New & DifferentCycling and Multi-Sport Specialist Austin-Lehman Adventures Embraces Bicycles for Humanity (B4H)
May 5, 2010
Billings, Montana-based ALA puts fleet of old wheels, its home community and active trips to work for rural Namibia settlement Billings, Montana — Global adventure travel company Austin-Lehman Adventures (ALA) has announced Bicycles for Humanity as its charitable partner and designated the African community of Ngoma, Namibia, as its newly adopted beneficiary. Tsumeb, Namibia Spearheaded by ALA director Dan Austin, who also founded the Billings, MT chapter of B4H, ALA has created three key initiatives with its local B4H by leveraging some of its greatest resources: (1) the collection and transport of a fleet of used bicycles; (2) the organization of a seven-day, all-inclusive fundraising B4H bike tour through Tuscany, October 2-8, 2010, with proceeds to develop a new Bicycle Empowerment Center in Namibia that offers distribution and repair services ; and (3) a bike delivery trip to Ngoma, Africa, and its surrounding Caprivi region in July, which will include visits to Victoria Falls... Read More →
New & DifferentCondé Nast Traveller Nominates WikiReader For Innovation & Design Awards 2010
May 3, 2010
WikiReader makes the short list among innovative travel-related products in ten different categories TAIPEI, TAIWAN – May 3, 2010 – Condé Nast Traveller has nominated WikiReader, a 4.5 ounce, palm-sized touchscreen device with more than 3 million Wikipedia articles, as a contender in the Condé Nast Traveller Innovation & Design Awards 2010 in the Communications Technology category. WikiReader was developed by Openmoko, Inc. and designed by Thomas Meyerhoffer, an innovator whose simple, elegant designs can be found in homes, offices and garages around the world. Meyerhoffer designed the lightweight battery-operated WikiReader to be fun and easy to use and extremely portable with simple three-button design, glass touchscreen and comfortable rounded housing. A sophisticated compression technique enables WikiReader to store and deliver more than 3 million Wikipedia articles, making it a self-contained device that requires no external connections, no subscriptions, and lightning... Read More →
New & DifferentEL AL Israel Airlines Offers 1,000 Free Cell Phones for use in Israel
April 12, 2010
Free phone delivery plus 60 Minutes Airtime Included New York, NY – EL AL Israel Airlines is introducing a new promotion whereby passengers departing from many cities in the USA can receive a free travel cell phone to use in Israel and on all future visits. This promotion is available with the purchase of a round trip ticket (in certain classes of service) for departures before June 30, 2010 from many cities in the USA either thru EL AL online or via any travel agent. With the EL AL travel phone, 60 complimentary minutes of outgoing calls from within Israel is included and there is no charge for incoming calls from anywhere in the world. Additional airtime for outgoing calls are competitively priced with other travel cell phone companies. There are no rental fees or hidden costs and no obligation to purchase additional minutes. After the EL AL passenger purchases and receives their e-ticket (in the applicable class of service), they will also receive a code and a link to the registration... Read More →
New & Different Spotlight: SustainabilityVerde Ventures forms New Partnership with le Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial
April 7, 2010
Verde Ventures has announced a new partnership with le Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial (FFEM) to support small and medium size enterprise business development and to improve impact monitoring in Africa. Verde Ventures experience has demonstrated that a “blended capital” approach, incorporating strategic grants for business skills and / or monitoring has significant conservation and human well being impacts. Editor’s Note: Long-time ATTA partner Neel Inamdar, who previously served as Conservation International’s Senior Ecotourism Advisor transitioned in 2009 to head up Verde Ventures, a Conservation International-United Nations partnership which supports eco-friendly local businesses at World Heritage sites across Latin America, Africa and Asia. While Verde Ventures efforts extend far beyond adventure tourism, its concentration on eco-enterprise delivers many compelling concepts for our industry to consider. Verde Ventures and FFEM, in... Read More →
New & DifferentThe Local Travel Movement Launches
April 7, 2010
Local Travel sets its sights on becoming a key trend in 2010 In mid-March, the Local Travel Movement trumpeted a call to people and organisations with a passion for local travel and commitment to local travel values. The promising early reverberations of this new, international, free-to-join movement have already inspired more than 40 organisations to join a growing list of partners at www.LocalTravelMovement.com. The Local Travel Movement was initiated by a core coalition of people from companies that believe Local Travel is greater than the sum of its parts. The Local Travel Movement is now already a rallying point through which, by working together, Local Travel companies can help give locals a real voice, engage travellers and develop a stronger ethical dialogue within the travel industry. Given the diversity of partner companies, the Local Travel Movement is not overly descriptive. Rather than define ‘local travel,’ the Local Travel Movement simply places value on an approach to... Read More →
Member Press Releases New & DifferentDiscover France Adventures Announces VIP Cycling Tours That Access the Celebrities and Legendary Stages of the Tour de France
April 5, 2010
SCOTTSDALE, AZ – Discover France Adventures, the leaders and specialists in France for cycling and hiking tours, announces the ‘pièce de résistance’ for summer 2010. The company is offering a series of VIP tours that follow the same route as the Tour de France and along the way give exclusive on-site access to the world’s top cycling luminaries. Discover France Adventures is one of only four companies worldwide licensed as Official Tour Operators for the upcoming season’s Tour de France that begins July 3, 2010. For details please see: http://www.discoverfrance.com/tour-de-france.html “Our VIP guests will have the opportunity to make contact with top pro riders and go up on the podium before the stage and GC winners. They literally get to bike along the same routes the great names in cycling are racing just a few hours behind them, and this year’s Tour will pit some legendary names in a head to head battle that shouldn’t be missed,” said Loren Siekman, President. Of... Read More →
Member Press Releases New & DifferentNew Torngat Safari puts Labrador in reach
March 17, 2010
Labrador – The once inaccessible peaks of northern Labrador are now within reach. Cruise North Expeditions, in partnership with Parks Canada and the Nunatsiavut (Northern Labrador) Government, is offering an exciting and unique wildlife Safari deep into the Torngat Mountains National Park. This strikingly beautiful, rugged mountain range is brimming with wildlife including the fastest growing population of polar bears, along with black bears, caribou and a variety of whales. This National Park is also an Inuit homeland where legend holds the spirit world overlaps our own. Before now this remote region was inaccessible to visitors. All this has changed with the launch of the Torngat Safari — multi-night safari-style packaged tours led by Inuit guides. Days are filled with polar bear and whale watching, fishing for char in sparkling mountain streams, and helicopter rides through breathtaking river valleys. When the sun sets, visitors relax in the cozy Safari-style tent camp, dining... Read More →
New & DifferentStrengthen Your Adventure Travel Line Up with A Personalized Pre-Departure Fitness Program
March 16, 2010
You’ve crafted the dream itinerary. The destination rocks. Your guides are awesome. But is there still an essential ingredient missing in your adventure formula? You may view tour planning and guest fitness as separate issues, not part of an integrated system. Both are important, of course, but does a fitness program need to be part of your adventure formula? Through his company, Fit for Trips, professional trainer and adventure enthusiast, Marcus Shapiro, provides comprehensive but simple trip-specific fitness programs. He spoke recently with ATTA about why it is important for adventure travel tour operators to advocate for physical preparedness. ATTA: First and foremost, why is addressing guest fitness important? Marcus Shapiro: Travelers truly are interested in pre-departure fitness programs according to proprietary market research conducted by Fit for Trips. The survey, issued in February of 2008 involved paddling, biking and hiking enthusiasts (adventure travel partner clients at... Read More →
New & DifferentU.S. President Signs the Travel Promotion Act
March 5, 2010
According to www.whitehouse.org: March 04, 2010 | 1:48 — The President signs the bipartisan Travel Promotion Act, which will create jobs, encourage travel to the United States, and help the tourism industry, which has been hurting as a result of the economic downturn, in the Oval Office. View the signing. Read More →
