Come pick up your badge and gift bag at the Lower Gate/ Dolna Porta (see map), 30 meters away from the Port of Ohrid. Watch for the AdventureNEXT Check In signs, where you may collect these items before 19:30 on Monday night. If you arrive after that, you will be able to pick up your badge and gift bag before your Day of Adventure starts.
All delegates must wear badges throughout AdventureNEXT to gain access to all sessions and events.
Check In Partner
If you were unable to check in on Monday night, come to the Inex Gorica Conference Center Lobby before your Day of Adventure to pick up your badge and gift bag.
All delegates must wear badges throughout AdventureNEXT to gain access to all sessions and events.
Join your fellow delegates on a full day of activity in and around Ohrid, Macedonia to kick-start networking on the first day of AdventureNEXT.
Lake Ohrid offers clear waters for diving with paleolithic settlements and active fishing villages along its banks. Four-million-year-old caves and ancient ruins are waiting to be explored, while local shepherds and artisans await your visit by bike, foot, jeep or donkey.
Following a welcoming greeting, vehicles will leave at 9:00 AM from Inex Gorica for your Day of Adventure.
If you were unable to check in on Monday night or before Day of adventure starts, come to the Inex Gorica Conference Center Lobby between 17.00 – 17.45 to pick up your badge and gift bag.
All delegates must wear badges throughout AdventureNEXT to gain access to all sessions and events.
Guests staying at the recommended hotels outside of Ohrid downtown will be picked up for the Opening Gala Dinner.
The international tour operators and journalists staying in Ohrid downtown will get together at Ohrid Port.
At the foot of the Galichica mountain, where the waters of the river Crn Drim start their journey to Ohrid Lake, Macedonia will welcome adventurers, delegates, journalists and other distinguished guests for the festive opening night of AdventureNEXT Balkans. Traditional recipes, made from organic ingredients grown and bred in the country’s green fields and mountain farms, will take you to a home that’s comforting, familiar and unknown, and exciting at the same time. Enjoy local wines while traditional and contemporary music and dance stop the clocks and take you to a time and place that you may have heard of, but find it hard to believe still exist. In always-welcoming and adventurous Macedonia, they very much still do.
For attire, we recommend you bring layers since the opening night gala dinner by Macedonia will be outside and the ride to dinner will be by boat.
Opening Night Gala Partner
Chris and Gergana will offer insights into making the most of AdventureNEXT, which is designed to serve as the next natural step in the long-term development strategy for the region. For years, the ATTA team has engaged in strategic development, education and training, and adventure travel marketing efforts throughout Southeastern Europe.
ATTA President Mr. Shannon Stowell will welcome all AdventureNEXT delegates with his opening keynote.
Travel is becoming a passion for more and more people around the world. Creative minds are launching new tourism businesses and solutions, technology is transforming the ways in which we travel and experience places, and sustainability and climate change are becoming everyday concerns. These realities and changing traveler behavior are creating a new market setting, one that is characterized by constant change and need for permanent innovation. To be fit for this new market game, tourism businesses need to master creativity and the ability to innovate on-the-go.
Network with your fellow AdventureNEXT delegates during this break.
Networking Coffee Break Partner
Now is the time to consider long-range responsible tourism development approaches and to explore how best to collaborate throughout Southeastern Europe with the global adventure tourism community in a manner that delivers both immediate and long-term impact. Access proven roadmaps to successful regional destination development through case studies showing how destinations leveraged communities, existing assets and infrastructure, public and private sector influencers, and others to realize profitable futures that protect people and place, create meaningful job growth, and feed creativity and innovation throughout the entire tourism supply chain.
Service providers from Southeastern Europe do not need to look across oceans for leading examples of world-class responsible adventure tourism innovators. There are entities already working in the Balkans who are helping to change the game. In this session, we’ll hear:
Connect to the historical, geographical and cultural richness of the Greater Balkans through a condensed immersion program which brings to light the return and re-emergence of one of Europe’s most impressive and untapped destinations. Through concise and colorful vignettes presented by knowledgeable characters from the region, we’ll be touching on:
You’ll come to understand why Southeastern Europe is unique and on the rise and thus a strong candidate region for developing new itineraries.
Enjoy networking during a lunch with your fellow delegates.
The AdventureNEXT Tour Operator MARKETPLACE features up to 50 inbound tour operators and accommodations from around the Balkans region and provides a focused setting to connect with potential partners, hold business meetings and promote adventure brands.
A global delegation of buyers (outbound tour operators, wholesalers & travel advisors) and media attend ATTA MARKETPLACE events as it facilitates quality introductions and product development discussions.
AdventureNEXT delegates are encouraged to connect with the ATTA Team to explore membership opportunities, learn about ATTA events, AdventureEDU training and education, partnerships, and more. This time is offered to give delegates the chance to share ideas, challenges, opportunities and successful case studies from their regions so that the ATTA is better prepared to support industry efforts.
The ATTA Team will be found at the Marketplace.
Network with your fellow AdventureNEXT delegates during this break
Networking Coffee Break Partner
The case for experiential tourism has won. People worldwide increasingly seek real and transformative experiences: they’re looking to get connected; they want to feel that they are on a personal journey. Fortunately, most destinations have a nearly infinite array of activities and cultural and nature-based assets just waiting to be revealed to help satisfy this unquenchable desire. Capturing a compelling proposition that blends all of these special elements is key to crafting grounded and ambitious “signature” experiences. To succeed, we must build belief in a shared vision. It must be inclusive. Each contributor must know, “What’s in it for me?” and to recognize that not everyone has the same need. It is the sum of the parts that make signature experiences successful. From the United State’s Route 66 to Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, Ethna Murphy shares what elements provide the spine for a powerful signature experience, the unifying truths behind the brand, and how to go about doing it.
Free night to explore the beautiful town of Ohrid.
One of the world’s best recipes for bringing us all together is simply food. As Luciano Pavarotti rightly said: “One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.”
Pavarotti was right: the necessity of human devotion to food is arguably one of the most important, memorable and connective forces of travel experiences. Situated amidst ancient spice trading routes, the Balkans has a cornucopia of traditional slow food secrets that are among the region’s most competitive adventure tourism assets. During this session, you’ll explore the food trends on global level. We will then continue with food adventures already under way in Macedonia – presented by the owners of Vila Dihovo and Hotel Tutto – gain ideas on how to market “food-first” itineraries, and learn how to build a regional food focus into your itineraries or destination marketing strategy.
Network with your fellow AdventureNEXT delegates during this break.
Networking Coffee Break Partner
Examining your business to find the essence of what makes your products and services special or different can be difficult. Casey Hanisko, ATTA’s VP of Marketing and Communication will lead a discussion between three journalists with very different perspectives: Tim Neville, a US-based freelance writer and contributor to The New York Times and Outside Magazine; Lyn Hughes, editor-in-chief of Wanderlust Travel Media in the UK; and Balkans-born Brana Vladisavljevic, Southeastern Europe destination editor for Lonely Planet. Through a deep discussion on how to best present your business to capture the attention of media, you’ll gain insight into how to make your destination or tours stand out, as well as what story or stories should be key in your marketing messages and media pitches.
At the end of the discussion, you’ll be fully prepared to join round table discussions with the attending 20 international media during MediaMeetUp. Over the course of the session you will rotate between round tables in order to give you a chance to personally meet the media, ask questions and share your story. Come prepared to pitch to media who are eager to uncover unique angles of your business, products, or destinations, while also learning from your colleagues as you listen to innovations and progress happening in their regions.
AdventureNEXT delegates are encouraged to connect with the ATTA Team to explore membership opportunities, learn about ATTA events, AdventureEDU training and education, partnerships, and more. This time is offered to give delegates the chance to share ideas, challenges, opportunities and successful case studies from their regions so that the ATTA is better prepared to support industry efforts.
The ATTA Team will be found at MediaMeetUp.
Be part of a journey through Europe’s newest country and a fascinating land at the heart of the Balkans. Kosovo rewards visitors with welcoming smiles, charming mountain towns, incredible hiking opportunities and 13th century cultural and religious attractions. Safe and welcoming to travelers, it is indeed one of the last corners of Europe that remains off the beaten track for travelers. Welcome to Kosovo!
Lunch Partner
In an age where travelers are increasingly demanding real-time product availability, customized itineraries and specialized customer service for deeper, one-of-a-kind local experiences, now is the time to sharpen your partnership and sales strategies and to make the most of your unprecedented access to new markets, marketing and distribution. For this compact session, Monica and Perry will support incoming suppliers with the insights needed to:
International buyers and journalists share their Balkans experiences with other delegates. Informed by market trends, participants will then create recommendations for responsible tourism development in Southeastern Europe that caters to travelers’ insatiable appetite for original and innovative experiences.
The tourism industry is changing fast: the sharing economy is taking over entire industry segments, digital technology and wearables are changing decision patterns and traveler behavior, and peer-to-peer interactions are modifying the dialogue between provider and client. In this market tourism businesses are facing the challenge of having to constantly learn to respond to changes and permanently innovate to remain competitive. This session will present a new way of thinking about innovation and creativity as must-have survival skills for tourism businesses. Hands-on activities will demonstrate the principles and approaches to finding creative solutions to new market challenges.
It takes months to put together an effective marketing program, and such efforts require investment from both public and private sectors to get marketing budgets and high-impact plans together. A key question for Governmental and Development Agencies to ask is, “Why should these visiting international buyers market the Balkans instead of marketing their already successful programs to other destinations worldwide?” Given that it takes 2-3 years for a given buyer’s self-funded marketing program to become profitable, destinations promotional and development agencies will want to consider offering visiting buyers ample incentives in the form of cooperative marketing opportunities. Join this session to gain step-by-step strategies to craft high-impact marketing campaigns that catalyze partnerships, stimulate increased brand recognition for your destination, and increase visitation.
Network with your fellow AdventureNEXT delegates.
Networking Coffee Break Partner
Paul Easto and Myles Farnbank of Wilderness Scotland will address what it takes to move your customer experience to the NEXT level. Enjoy their thought-provoking and light-hearted look at the challenges of designing, developing and delivering adventure travel experiences that attract and retain loyal customers. They’ll blend offbeat tales from the field with practical insights. Be ready to review your current approach and reflect on what you can do to reach the NEXT level.
The Balkans are, without question, one of the most special places in the world with nature, diversity of beauty, history, culture and experiences. But, the most important thing about this region is that it has a definitive personality. Because the personality of the Balkans is carried by its people, it actually is the people….it is us.
The secret of our personality is that we, in the ancient crossroads of the world, have experienced thousands of years of migrating cultural flows.
We now know how to give life to our dreams for prosperity by offering adventure experiences to our visitors. We now know how to move beyond differences and create peace, beauty and lasting positive emotions. This is our special gift. We now are aware of what it will take to help adventure travelers around the globe discover us: optimistic, entrepreneurial, risk takers in our determination to overcome challenges, to make our dreams come true. We now know that this dream is not just a dream…..it is a realistic opportunity.
Reflect on the learnings and inspiration found at the first AdventureNEXT Balkans with ATTA Executive Director – Europe, Chris Doyle.
Enjoy dinner and connect with your fellow AdventureNEXT delegates.
About Us
Established in 1990, the Adventure Travel Trade Association is the largest global network of adventure travel leaders. Our community is made up of ~30,000 individual guides, tour operators, lodges, travel advisors, tourism boards, destination marketing and management organizations, outdoor educators, gear companies and travel media who share a belief and commitment to sustainable tourism. The connections and creativity of this vibrant community come together both virtually and in person to create and deliver the solutions that propel our businesses and our communities toward a responsible and profitable future.
