A group of 45 senior adventure travel executives from around the globe gathered at AdventureELEVATE Europe 2026 set aside the conference script for something rarer: an honest conversation about what's actually keeping them up at night. The invite-only Business Leaders Peer-to-Peer Session gathered a deeply seasoned room, where 57% of participants had spent more than 21 years in tourism and 85% more than 11, to talk openly about navigating a world that refuses to hold still.
“The invited-only business leaders session at ATTA’s events are where the value of our community really comes together. During a few hours, years of experience, failures, lessons learned, leadership and successful business are distilled into the best sector-specific executive. knowledge and expertise. It is like a year-long crash course condensed into a couple of hours.” adds Gustavo Timo, ATTA’s president and the session facilitator.
The verdict was unanimous enough that it closed the session: 100% of participants said they want more dedicated spaces like this one. In a period of rapid transformation, peer dialogue is starting to feel less like a perk and more like infrastructure.
The next planned session like this one will happen at ATWS Québec in September 2026.
Uncertainty as the New Baseline
The first round opened on the forces reshaping the industry from the outside, namely war, climate, geopolitics, and AI, and quickly converged on a shared conclusion: uncertainty is no longer an interruption to plan around; it's the operating condition itself.
Leaders described demand shifting geographically with every change in perceived safety, and crises rippling well beyond the destinations directly affected. The response has been a quieter, more conservative posture: diversifying markets and products, managing fixed costs carefully, building in operational flexibility, and expanding scenario planning. If there was a silver lining, it was COVID, repeatedly credited with strengthening the industry's resilience and adaptability.
Climate change drew particular attention as a force already rewriting day-to-day operations rather than a distant risk. Participants shared concrete adjustments: reworking itineraries around heat and storms, developing products in cooler destinations and seasons, training guides on heat management and emergency adaptation, and updating accommodations and systems for shifting conditions. The recurring word was continuous. These are not temporary fixes but a permanent shift toward constant adaptation.
Threaded through it all was a strong human-centered leadership theme. Supporting teams during uncertainty, communicating calmly through crises, avoiding reactive layoffs, and preparing customer-facing communication plans in advance were all cited as markers of organizational resilience. As one consensus had it, resilience lives in people and culture.
AI: High Interest, High Caution
No topic generated more discussion than artificial intelligence, and the tone was notably measured. Leaders named a long list of concerns, including the pace of change, choosing platforms, data quality, security and privacy, the risk of over-implementing, and the potential erosion of human connection. The favored strategy was summed up in a phrase that echoed across groups: "go slow and intentional."
That meant focusing on clear value creation, implementing gradually rather than all at once, running internal assessments across departments before investing heavily, and using AI to sharpen efficiency rather than replace human-centered experiences. Several leaders stressed that adoption should align with company culture and long-term strategy rather than react to hype.
From Automation to Thought Partner
The second round turned practical, and the room revealed just how far AI has already moved into daily operations. Use cases ranged widely: customer communication and email drafting, chatbots and sales agents, website and reservation-system development, proposal and itinerary generation, content and blog creation, review analysis, translation and localization, competitor benchmarking, and even financial modeling and legal-document support. Several companies reported meaningful time savings.
More striking was how many leaders now treat AI as a strategic thought partner, using it for scenario analysis, brainstorming, challenging their own assumptions, and research. Some described it as a "moderator" that improves clarity and decision-making.
But the group was emphatic that leadership adoption alone isn't enough. Internal training emerged as critical: carving out dedicated experimentation time, encouraging curiosity and play, and building organization-wide learning cultures. They embraced a paradox of slowing down initially in order to accelerate over the long term.
And despite the enthusiasm, the human touch was repeatedly named as the enduring competitive advantage, showing up in personalized relationships, emotional intelligence, complex problem solving, high-touch experiences, and brand authenticity. AI should enhance human capability, the consensus held, not replace it.
A Shifting Competitive Map
Looking ahead, participants sketched a landscape that may favor a particular kind of operator. Likely advantages: deep niche expertise, high-quality proprietary product, strong customer relationships, ownership of inventory and capacity, operational agility, and clean internal data. The risks were the mirror image: generic AI-generated content, commoditization, information inaccuracies, falling behind on adoption, and tool fragmentation. Several noted that smaller specialized DMCs could gain ground precisely through expertise and authenticity, while owning inventory and customer relationships may become a durable moat.
The session's closing message was simple and shared: the future will favor businesses that stay adaptable, intentional, and human-centered, willing to evolve thoughtfully alongside both technological and global change.
If you are looking to be part of this type of session designed for founders, C-level executives, executive directors or executive managers join us at the Adventure Travel World Summit 14-17 September 2026 in Québec City.