Future of tourism is adventure – ATTA

A personal message from Shannon Stowell, President of the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA)

Shannon Stowell

As many of you know, we just completed our 9th Adventure Travel World Summit in Lucerne, Switzerland. At this event we had the privilege of welcoming UNWTO Secretary-General Mr. Taleb Rifai to our community.

While at the Summit Mr. Rifai stated,

“Adventure tourism is what tourism should be today and definitely what tourism will be tomorrow.”

I believe this is an indicator of a sea change in the world of tourism and directly impacts the future of all businesses working within the adventure sector.

Also during the event, two major ATTA initiatives were signed, a memorandum of understanding between the UNWTO and the ATTA, by which we have agreed to work together to promote advocacy, research, quality, and education/training within the adventure tourism sector.

And secondly, the ATTA became the first United States-based association to sign the Tourism Child-Protection Code of Conduct, an internationally accepted industry-driven corporate responsibility initiative to protect children from sexual exploitation in travel and tourism.

Namibian gravel road.

By signing these two agreements, it is our hope that governments and policymakers begin to join hands with our adventure travel community — to make a difference around the world now and shape a future for tourism that is both sustainable and ethical.

We hope that others within the industry will take up these initiatives as well, specifically by working toward their own agreement to protect children. Within the next 30 days, you’ll see the ATTA announce our values statement much of which is driven by our commitment to the above. In this statement we ask that ATTA members, and future members, share these same values in order to join our community.

Please take a moment to review the following press releases sent out to the media industry earlier today. These releases summarize the recent Summit news and initiatives mentioned above.

• UNWTO, WWF International and Google Hail Adventure Travel as the Future of Tourism at 2012 Adventure Travel World Summit
• Advocacy, Research, Quality, Education & Training Collaboration Central to New World Tourism Organization-Adventure Travel Trade Association Partnership.
• Adventure Travel Trade Association Joins ECPAT’s Fight Against Sexual Exploitation of Children