This month, the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) unveiled its new online membership website, The Adventure HUB. To help ATTA members become acquainted with the new community tool, we sat down with Murray Bartholomew, marketing manager for the ATTA, to discuss its features and benefits.
For those who aren’t yet aware, could you tell us about The Adventure HUB?
The Adventure HUB is the online meeting place for adventure travel community members of the ATTA. It’s designed to connect members of the global adventure travel trade community and provide them with a place to access their membership benefits.
How long has The HUB been around?
In its current form, just a few weeks! We shared the new site with ATTA members earlier this August and since then there have been dozens of HUBShares (aka posts) published, hundreds of people joining new groups, and hundreds of new connections made. Prior to its current format, the community was on another platform. That community space was around for almost ten years, and we saw it grow from a few hundred members to several thousand members, who represent every niche of the travel industry on every continent.
Why was The HUB built?
At our in-person events, we can see the magic that happens when the adventure travel community gets together — new partnerships and connections are made, sometimes surprising ones. That type of in-person networking is hard to emulate in a digital platform, but our members required something to supplement those in-person opportunities and foster those connections throughout the year. Our team is frequently asked about leads in very specific places — “Do you know any tour operators in Cambodia?” The HUB helps you find, build, and develop those connections in a community just for adventure travel professionals.
What’s on the new HUB?
Feature wise, we set our scopes on replicating what members relied on in the previous platform. Our team is brimming with ideas for new features, and, honestly, it has been hard to not add all these features immediately. However, our objective is to get members into a sustainable community as soon as possible, which required developing a completely new backend that is custom-built for our members. Since this community platform was built by the ATTA, we now have full control to decide where it goes and build in additional features to foster community. It’s exciting for us to see where this can go.
One of the new features I find useful on the new HUB is the community search feature. Now you can drill down by company type, country, and whether a company is a buyer or supplier. It just makes it simple to find people you want to connect with.
Additionally, now that the ATTA has a membership program for adventure travel media with more than 100 editorial media, we see media members engaging in the Journalist Alert group to find industry partners who may be able to assist with story creation.
Do you have any tips for members who want to become involved in The HUB?
First off, take a minute to update your profile and upload your bio photo. This lets other people know about you and your company for any potential partnerships. No one I have met actually looks like that default blue avatar; it’s much nicer to see your face!
I’m impressed by the community’s response to questions posted as HUBShares or within groups. Each month in PROSPER, the membership email newsletter, we highlight notable discussions, FAM trips, journalist outreach, and group/marketplace activity. If there is a technology question you have, ask it! If you have a familiarization tour coming up, share it! If you’re a media member looking for tips on a story, ask it in the Journalist Alert group.
Here are some other quick steps to get connected on The HUB:
- Find and add 10 new connections.
- Browse and join three groups.
- Respond to a HUBShare.
- On your profile, share what types of potential partnerships you may be interested in fostering.
The HUB is a community for ATTA members at members.adventuretravel.biz. Active members can create their account today and non-members can learn about membership benefits.