Time to Reconnect
It feels so great to be all connected again, not just virtually but also physically, just in time for the busiest month of the year for tourism trade in Oceania with Fiji Tourism Expo, Australia Tourism Exchange, and TRENZ in New Zealand. Networking, rebuilding, reconnecting, and regenerating are the keywords for bringing tourism back, yes, but better.
A warm welcome to the Vanuatu Tourism Office, who recently joined our thriving ATTA membership community, and we are delighted to see that they are reopening their borders in July; congratulations!
Reflecting on Indigenous & Community-based Tourism
The pandemic has been an important time to meditate and rethink tourism. One key focus we have been reflecting on at ATTA is Indigenous Tourism. We spoke with and learned from some local heroes from Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea who were kind enough to share their stories and experiences in our latest webinar, Meet the Expert: Indigenous & Community-based Tourism - Challenges & Opportunities. Special thanks to our wonderful panelists Tourism Australia, Intrepid Travel, WINTA, Walkabout Cultural Adventures, and Indigenous Kokoda Adventures. The recording is available in case you missed it.
Our Yarning Project; Indigenous Australian books with Huw Kingston
As we are talking about Indigenous Tourism and the importance of storytelling to preserve culture and identity, we are extremely proud to share the project from ATTA Ambassador and Australian Adventurer-Environmentalist writer Huw Kingston: An Odyssey for a Yarn, based on a wonderful collaboration with Save the Children, “to produce age-appropriate books for Indigenous Australian children, written and illustrated by Indigenous authors and illustrators, telling their stories, their way.”
News from the Field
- Our ATTA Community has been busy while waiting for the borders to reopen. Viva Expeditions from New Zealand sent their Boeing 787 Dreamliner south into the sub-Antarctic region in search of the Auroral oval. The images captured are just mind-blowing!
- We are proud to have three Adventure Champions in Oceania. An Adventure Champion is a business that has been a member of our ATTA community for over 15 years. Each champion is featured in our Spotlight interview. So we are pleased to bring it to you this time around, World Expeditions.
- Many of you may have met Christina from World Nomads in the USA. She has been an active part of our community for many years, and while she left during the pandemic, we are thrilled to hear that she is back!
Wildlife Tourism Matters
Oceania is a region that offers outstanding wildlife experiences with some of the greatest endemic species in the world, and wildlife conservation has always been a core focus in our industry with great practices in your region, so you may like to know that ATTA recently partnered with the NGO Animondial on an onlineEDU course: Protecting Animals and Nature in Adventure Travel, if you would like to find out more, there will be a webinar introducing the course on May 19, 2022.
Climate Change & Tourism in the Pacific Islands
Another of ATTA’s initiatives close to our heart is Climate Change & Tourism. While we are currently drafting our Climate Action Plan and bringing new solutions to reduce our emissions in our events and all activities, our vice president Christina Beckmann, also co-founder of Tomorrow’s Air, has worked closely with the UNWTO on a new study in partnership with the Adventure Travel Trade Association and supported by the group Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency, “Global Study of Climate Action in Tourism.”
Facing Climate Realities Brings New Opportunities for Pacific Island Destinations Charting a New Course in Tourism
To continue our reflective work post-COVID and look at including Indigenous and local knowledge in climate adaptation plans, the ATTA is hosting a new webinar from the Oceania series on June 2, 2022. Don’t miss out on our session Meet the Experts: Climate Change & Tourism in the Pacific Islands - What can travel businesses do to help? Christina Beckmann will be the moderator, and strong voices from the Pacific will include South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO), Intrepid Travel, Ziptrek Ecotours from New Zealand, and The Climate Reality Project. You can register here.
Adventure Travel World Summit 2022
As we just closed our AdventureELEVATE signature event in Oregon with great success, it reminded us how important it is to get together physically with like-minded people from our trade and get inspired by each other. With this new boost of energy, we would like to invite you, now that you can travel again and are probably getting itchy feet, to our Adventure Travel World Summit in Lugano, Switzerland, from 3-6 October 2022. Also, note that in 2023 our Summit will be in Japan.
Good luck to you all for the busy and exciting month to come, and rendez-vous next quarter for more news from the adventure travel field in Oceania.