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 matter to write about.
Each year, major USA (inter)national glossy travel and adventure magazines publish round-ups of "Top Ten" lists, "Best Trips in the World", etc., and every year, the ATTA's PR Team works with the respective editorial teams to provide trends, news, insights and leads for travel writers/editors that draw attention to ATTA Members.
The ATTA works to fuels mainstream media stories about adventure tourism, trying to help media outlets change the narrative from general/mass leisure tourism, to the transformative potential of adventure tourism. In this way, the ATTA works to influence the media's agenda on how and when they cover adventure tourism. ATTA's efforts in the past several years has, in part, resulted in notable increases in coverage of adventure tourism.
From this extensive coverage, adventure tourism, and more specifically coverage of ATTA members has grown significantly, resulting in millions of impressions in print, digital and broadcast mediums - impressions that are reaching audiences specifically inclined to take holidays.
Here are just a few examples of how the ATTA and its Members are collaborating to generate increased editorial coverage for the adventure tourism sector:
National Geographic Traveler – May 2012, “50 Tours of a Lifetime” Feature: The ATTA works regularly with the editorial team by issuing Journalist Alerts to the ATTA Membership seeking contributions for the magazine's annual round-up feature stories on adventure.
Outside Magazine – May 2012, “Destinations”: The ATTA works year-round with the magazine's senior editorial team, supporting its freelance travel journalists through Journalist Alerts that provide instant expert resources, innovative product and more, to help writers source stories for the print and digital versions of Outside Magazine. In this case, the ATTA supported the author in his effort to identify “adventures in National Parks” throughout the U.S.
For the Wall Street Journal April 14 2012 feature: The ATTA developed a Storytelling Team for its 2011 Adventure Travel World Summit whose assignment it was to develop adventure stories, images and video that would be used to pitch stories to international media. In this case, six months after the 2011 ATWS, a full-page feature about Oaxaca, Mexico and mountain biking, provided by the ATTA Storytelling team landed in the WSJ. Its Travel Section was renamed "Adventure & Travel", a seemingly new approach for the WSJ.
For the Seattle Times April 15, 2012: The ATTA's PR team worked with writer Kristin Jackson to help her identify and reach all top quality adventure tour operators based in the greater Puget Sound Region resulting in an extensive Sunday travel section feature in the region's top newspaper focused mostly on ATTA Member companies.