<< Return to AdventureTravelNews - November, 2007

Paddling Ontario and ATTA Alliance Brings Industry to Operators’ Doorstep

Paddling Ontario Alliance (POA), an association of 20 paddling operators in Ontario, Canada, recently offered a new spin on the ATTA’s Association Partnership (AP) program, one that had immediate benefits for their members.  

While the AP program provides the members of any member adventure travel trade association discounted memberships for that association to then offer to their own members, POA found it best to purchase the memberships for their 20 operators all at once.

“We are very excited to work with the ATTA,” said POA Executive Director Scott Adams. “The enhanced benefits package that this partnership provides to our members has quickly become a keystone value offer for our association. The obvious winners are our members – however, ultimately the entire adventure travel community will benefit as we continue to work together and leverage each of our assets to reach and foster new markets on a global front.”

To further help the adventure travel industry grow, the ATTA strives to position itself as the global ‘hub’ of the adventure travel community – and a critical element of this is the AP program. By bringing together tour operators, accommodations, specialty travel agents, destination marketing organizations, tourism ministries, and associated industries (media, airline, software, etc.) under the ATTA umbrella, we’ve created a central network of the adventure travel community’s most committed leaders. This collaboration allows us all to network; share critical information, knowledge and practices; and unify efforts to grow and protect the industry at large. The ATTA’s intent with forming a strategic alliance with associations around the globe is to understand and respond to the expansion and growth needs of those organizations, the ATTA, and the adventure travel market at large.

Partnering with regional and national associations around the globe allows the network to grow by leaps and bounds as the ATTA open lines of communication with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of operators and other adventure travel companies in one immediate move.

Noted ATTA President Shannon Stowell, “[The AP program] allows us to tap into the best-qualified regional network of experts for that region and bring their messages and interests to the global stage, while the ATTA can then directly support that association – and their members – with an international network, resources, marketing influence and global expertise. Our intent with this program is to build a long lasting, ‘win-win’ situation for both associations.”  

Launched in July 2007 with an inaugural cast of 11 association partners from 10 nations, ATTA’s AP program’s charter members included:

• Bhutan – Association of Bhutanese Tour Operators
• Brazil – Associação Brasileira das Empresas de Turismo de Aventura (ABETA), Brazilian Adventure Travel Trade Association
• Canada –
  • Paddling Ontario Alliance
  • Aventure Ecotourisme Quebec
• Chile – Corporación de Promoción Turistica (CPT), Tourism Promotion Corporation of Chile
• Ecuador – Ecuadorian Ecotourism Association (ASEC)
• Mexico – Asociación Mexicana de Turismo de Aventura y Ecoturismo (AMTAVE), Mexican Association of Adventure Tourism and Ecotourism
• Nepal – Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA)
• New Zealand – Tourism Industry Association New Zealand
• Peru – La Asociación Peruana de Turismo de Aventura y Ecoturismo (APTAE), Peruvian Association of Ecotourism and Adventure Tourism
• Trinidad & Tobago – Trinidad and Tobago Incoming Tour Operators Association (TTITOA)

In 2008, the ATTA will make another push with “Stage Two” to further expand the program. For the second stage of the AP program, the Asociacion Argentina de Ecoturismo y Turismo Aventura has already signed on, with several other associations around the globe currently evaluating the benefits of the initiative.

“We’re very happy to work with all our Association Partners and to offer their members discounted ATTA Memberships,” added Stowell. “But the POA model further streamlines the process and brings immediate benefit to an association’s total membership. It’s a great way to work together and immediately lock in those operators into the ATTA’s global network.”

In time, with the union of ATTA Members, APs and associations’ members, it is expected that the ATTA with this growing network will be able to bring with a ‘power in numbers’ strategy to bear impact on matters that directly affect the adventure travel community.  With a larger pool of leaders from all continents with a common vision and vested interest in this industry, together it can work to provide an influential and resounding ‘voice’ on critical topics such as sustainability, insurance, risk management, standards, conservation, and other topics requiring ‘power in numbers’.  

More information about how regional or national adventure trade and tour operator associations can benefit from the synergies within the ATTA’s AP program, contact Chris Chesak at or +1.208.921.5626