Letter from the President:

Welcome to the first edition of the Adventure Travel Trade Association’s AdventureTravelNews™!

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It’s an exciting time at the ATTA as we have undergone a complete overhaul and are engaged in new initiatives designed to benefit you, our members. Over the past year a radical change has occurred. If you missed the news, an entirely new management team for the ATTA took the helm in April 2004. Our focus during this crucial rebuilding period was to connect with existing and prospective members to learn how the industry’s trade association might better serve its membership for years to come. We’ve taken that feedback to heart.

Responding directly to industry requests, we re-launched the ATTA in January 2005 with a whole new set of membership benefits. Networking, research and market development initiatives were among the industry’s top priorities. On the networking front, the ATTA will host several networking events annually, including the recently announced ATTA Adventure Travel World Summit (www.adventuretravelworldsummit.com) to be held October 16-18, 2005 in Seattle, Washington, at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center.

Before introducing new market development initiatives, the ATTA required a better read on the state of the industry. With this in mind, the ATTA began new adventure travel industry research trade and consumer studies in 2004 in partnership with Michigan State University. The results of these studies (An Executive Summary of the research is reported in this month’s AdventureTravelNews™, while the complete report will soon be released exclusively to ATTA Members.) will help to fill the gap of an industry lacking authoritative and credible research. These studies are also serving as building blocks to even more comprehensive research projects currently being developed.

With a better handle on defining the adventure travel industry and understanding its fit in the overall travel industry, we’ll be better positioned to drive new business to ATTA members. To this end, the ATTA is pursuing several new consumer outreach initiatives to address this imperative which will be announced late in 2005.

AdventureTravelNews™ will be on hand to report on groundbreaking ATTA initiatives, cover ATTA Member and general industry news, address persistent questions, and bring matters to the forefront that can contribute to information sharing, industry understanding, networking and tangible growth. Relationship building and critical dialogue are essential during this process and will help us work toward mutually beneficial goals.

For this purpose, I encourage you to contact me at 360.805.3131 or or Chris Doyle, ATTA Director and AdventureTravelNews™ Editor-In-Chief at 916.791.9409 or with constructive input that will contribute to the greater good of the adventure travel industry.

I look forward to your feedback.

Shannon Stowell, ATTA President

Go to June 2005 Issue >>