Following any event hosted by the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA), team members field a lot of feedback from attending delegates. We receive phone calls and emails, social media messages and even hand-written letters. In nearly all of these communications, we hear a common refrain: Adventure travel professionals greatly value the sense of community that has been built within the industry — and is intensely illuminated at in-person events.
Of course, delegates tell us they get a lot out of workshop sessions, keynote presentations, and interesting tangential activities affiliated with ATTA events, but it is ultimately people who make them valuable. From organized networking sessions to friendly camaraderie at sponsored cocktail hours, community is the cornerstone that draws delegates out of their offices and away from their tours to ATTA events around the globe.
With this in mind, the ATTA has taken special care to enhance the “person-to-person” value at the 2018 Adventure Travel World Summit, which is sure to be particularly powerful in Tuscany. This year’s delegate list is filling up with a dynamic and diverse array of buyers, suppliers, tour operators, travel agents, destination representatives, and other industry professionals. To open up opportunities for all of these delegates to forge new partnerships and develop professional relationships with each other, the ever-popular Marketplace will be even more remarkable at this year’s Summit. As in the past, the Marketplace will allow delegates to arrange one-on-one meetings critical for growing their businesses. This year, however, there will be two Marketplace sessions: the International Supplier Marketplace will facilitate meetings with 100 tour operator suppliers from around the world and the International Destination Showcase will host more than 25 destination partners, allowing them to spotlight the very best of their destinations and partnership opportunities.
The Summit also features MediaConnect — a Marketplace-like networking session specifically designed for one-on-one meetings between delegates and attending media. The just-released 2018 media list is particularly impressive, with journalists and editors who have published widely in publications including National Geographic Traveler, The Guardian, AFAR, Travel Weekly, The New York Times, and Vogue.
“Being connected to the adventure travel community is to remove oneself from isolation, and it’s realizing there are other businesses, other inspirational leaders who are wrestling with the same thorny topics in the industry,” said Casey Hanisko, president of the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) / Adventure 360. “The term ‘networking’ is often symbolized by a brief handshake or the exchanging of contact information but, beyond that simple definition, what we see year and year again at the Summit is long-standing, meaningful relationships that are forged out of shared values, honed with trust, and are deep, creative, supportive, and welcoming.”
If one of the key valuations of the Adventure Travel World Summit is all about who’s coming, then it’s worth noting once again the significance of this year’s keynote speakers. Following the Summit’s theme of Wellspring and returning to adventure travel’s roots, four inspiring speakers will lead delegates through a journey from the fundamental source (noteworthy author and explorer David Quammen) to a connection with the Earth and its people (humanitarian adventurer Yossi Ghinsberg) into a sense of community and camaraderie (historian Jean-Claude Razel of Alaya Expedições) through a vision for the future (ATTA CEO Shannon Stowell).
Every year, the Adventure Travel World Summit becomes even more noteworthy than the previous year due in large part to the people who attend — and that means you. Register today for the 2018 Summit.