Québec Province Wins Bid to Host ATTA’s 2009 Adventure Travel World Summit

20 November 2008
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Marketing, Networking & Best Practices to Drive the 2009 Summit Agenda

(SEATTLE) – Canada’s Québec province will host the Adventure Travel Trade Association’s mid-October 2009 Adventure Travel World Summit (ATWS), a trade only, marketing, networking and best practices conference.
  

Extending its reach into South America and Europe in 2008, the ATTA, now a nearly 500-member trade group representing 51 countries, returns to its North American roots in 2009 after a six month bidding process. With the ATTA’s foundation and largest membership base is in North America, it will continue to maximize its strength on this continent by connecting it with the global market and vice versa.

ATTA’s trade-only conference venue and date will be announced in December 2008. ATTA made its destination host choice shortly after its 2008 adventure travel trade conferences in Brazil and Norway which attracted a total of nearly 1,000 delegates.

For 2009, Québec won the bid for the estimated 600-delegate gathering primarily because of its active involvement in the ATTA for more than two years, a strong on-the-ground association partner in Aventure Ecotourisme Québec (AEQ), its world-class conference venue options, and access to compelling nature-based and cultural adventure travel product, including its Northernmost territory of Nunavik. Its geographic location also served as a tremendous advantage as it will enable the ATTA to make its Summit more accessible than ever before to adventure travel professionals on the East Coast of Canada and the U.S. In addition to financial sponsorship, Québec’s proposal also included substantial commitment to cooperative marketing efforts, discounts with accommodations, air transport and adventure tour options for Summit delegates.

 “Québec clearly recognizes the value of serving as host to the Adventure Travel World Summit, as it brings to the province a large contingent of travel industry influencers and media,” said ATTA President Shannon Stowell. “When it comes to promotion and tourism strategies, Tourisme Québec understands that by assembling the global adventure travel community it is more strongly positioned as an adventure travel destination, and it gives the province a powerful opportunity to showcase its adventure travel product to the media and potential buyers.”

Previous venues have included Seattle (2005-2006), Whistler, B.C., Canada (2007), Sao Paulo, Brazil (2008), and Norway (2008). ATWS events engage, enlighten, inspire, and energize the leaders of the adventure travel community with executive-level networking, business and professional development programs, educational seminars and emerging adventure destination product review opportunities. With the ATWS, the ATTA and its Summit delegates influence the manner in which adventure travel is introduced, executed and sustained in any given destination worldwide – encouraging the industry to adopt sustainability and best practices that give back to the people and places impacted by adventure travel.

Pursuing its strategy to host one World Summit annually, the ATTA will host its 2009 Summit in North America. In 2010 and beyond, the ATTA aims to host ATWS events outside North America in alternating years. Already well into the bidding process, the ATTA, once it has selected its 2010 host destination, will open the bidding process for its Adventure Travel World Summit events for 2011 (North America) and 2012 (outside North America).

Early Sponsors of the 2009 Adventure Travel World Summit include Tourisme Québec, ExOfficio, W.L. Gore & Associates and Men’s Journal.

Established in 1990, the Seattle-based ATTA (www.adventuretravel.biz) is a global membership organization dedicated to unifying, professionalizing, promoting and responsibly growing the adventure travel market worldwide. ATTA Members include tour operators, destination marketing organizations, tourism boards, travel agents/agencies, guides, lodges/resorts/attractions, media, and service providers. Host of the ATWS, the ATTA provides professional support, development, education, research, marketing, career building, networking and cost saving resources to its members.

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