Themed Visions of our Future, the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) delivered its first in Europe AdventureELEVATE two-day event. Despite the digital format this AdventureELEVATE was designed to reconnect the European community and invite the local industry to jointly focus on moving adventure travel forward to a recovery with sustainability at its core.
Most recently, the European adventure community was fortunate to host two Summits in a row - in 2018 in Tuscany and in 2019 in Gothenburg, Sweden and this regional event was a natural platform for revival and reigniting of the energy in this region.
AdventureELEVATE Europe offered two inspirational keynote sessions. The start was put by thought-leader Anna Pollock who invited the audience to make a shift in the way we all make sense of our world by focusing on regenerative tourism. The close was delivered by Milena Nikolova who talked about spendshift and talked about cost flipping -- a behavioral strategy involving the repurposing of funds from handling undesired costs to preventing undesired behaviors altogether. In this same session Sidney Banks from ATTA's payments partner Flywire presented the future of global travel payments.
The two-day event included a mix of networking opportunities and interactions. One of the most appreciated formats were the roundtable discussions around highly relevant subjects such as Strategies to prevent overtourism, Innovative destination recovery, Business resilience, Climate action and the Future of Storytelling. A series of hands-on concurrent sessions delivered by industry experts touched on self-guided experiences, critical destination development elements for travelers of all abilities, financial transparency & sustainability as non negotiable and year-round resilience in mountain tourism.
The event enabled the 300+ delegates, from Europe and other parts of the globe to (re-)connect with over thirty international buyers and media. The spirit elevated friendly and this was strengthened by the networking format -- speed meeting randomising participants and giving everyone an opportunity to connect with expected and unexpected friends from the industry. These non-structured meetings provided a bit of the ATTA event spirit even in a digital environment: “The "old" vibe of in-person ATTA events was present and it filled my heart…” were the words of one participant. Another delegate commented also in the feedback survey: “Great event with interesting presentations by Europe's key tourism stakeholders. Hopefully next year we are able to meet in person!”; “Once again the ATTA has delivered a great, top quality event, where the participants were engaged in networking and exchanging ideas with each other. I'm looking forward to what's next.”
In its efforts to serve its community and to offer relevant solutions for COVID-19 recovery, the ATTA continues with its mission to inspire, connect and enable the global travel community to deliver experiences that protect natural and cultural capital and create shared economic value. AdventureELEVATE Europe - virtual confirmed that even in a virtual environment the ATTA community is energised and ready to reconnect, share ideas and lessons learned. A month after the event took place, we returned to our daily lives but we all are more inspired and inspired with new ideas and strategies for business resilience with sustainability at the core.
We continue with our efforts towards the next opportunities to be together - whether in smaller or bigger format or hopefully at an in-person event. Regardless of the format, we know that the power of our community is in staying connected. Stay in touch and let us know how we at ATTA can be of support to you!
