WHO: Executives from diverse sectors of the adventure travel industry worldwide will gather in Seattle at a trade-only summit to address the future of adventure travel – among the fastest growing segments of the travel and leisure industry. Organizations represented show a variety of the many influential leaders shaping the adventure travel industry – attendees including tourism boards, operators, airlines, publishers, travel agencies and others are featured at http://www.adventuretravelworldsummit.com/atws-attendees.html.
WHAT: Approximately 400 Summit delegates will discuss the industry’s most pressing topics in the news today which directly affect the viability of the adventure travel industry. Keynote speakers and daytime sessions will address how such topics as global warming and sustainable “green” tourism practices directly affect the way people travel and explore the world. Delegates also will investigate topics including community-based tourism, carbon-offset travel, and how travel companies can help with rural economic development and poverty alleviation, as well as what travelers can do to preserve the local cultural and heritages of the places they visit.
WHEN: October 19-21, 2006 (specific day-by-day highlights below)
WHERE: Seattle’s Bell Harbor International Conference Center
HIGHLIGHTS & VISUALS:
- October 19: Follow and interview Summit delegates as they explore the Pacific Northwest’s best with Puget Sound area adventure travel providers. Local adventure companies serve as host to an array of cultural, hiking, whitewater rafting, sea kayaking, river boarding, geo-teaming, scuba diving and yachting excursions. Visit http://www.adventuretravelworldsummit.com/atws-adventure-day.html to see and hear where Summit executives, including a Vietnamese travel pioneer, an Ecuadorian tribal leader, tourism board dignitaries from four continents, a famed archaeologist, authors and many more industry “characters” think about Washington State’s adventure treasures.
- October 19 (8:15 p.m.): Wade Davis, world-renowned anthropologist, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, and author of, “Light at the Edge of the World: A Journey Through the Realm of Vanishing Cultures,” demonstrates the importance of responsible tourism through anecdotes he has collected through his work with Haitian voodoo and Amazonian mythologies.
- October 20 (8 a.m.): Wildlife Trust President and DISCOVER magazine columnist Mary Pearl will share her experiences as a scientist working to conserve ecosystems in localities worldwide.
- October 20 (noon): Joe Robinson, author of “Work to Live: The Guide to Getting a Life.” Robinson contends that adventure travel is a necessity, as a health product, in today’s overbooked and overworked society.
- October 21 (5:30 p.m.): Brian Fagan, archaeologist and one of the world’s leading archaeological writers and regular contributor to Archaeology Magazine, takes a look at adventure travel, both yesterday’s and today’s, with a look at some of the greatest adventures over the past 15,000 years.
- October 21 (7 p.m.): Discover India! night and celebrations, presented by Incredible India.