The Adventure Travel Trade Association has entered a three year partnership with Norwegian Centres of Expertise (NCE) Tourism and Fjord Norway, which adds 60 new European members to the ATTA’s 1,000-member global community.
In early June 2014, 60 businesses from across the tourism supply chain in Norway joined the ATTA as members, including adventure tour operators, destination marketing organizations (DMOs), transportation companies, accommodations/hotels, technology providers and educational institutions. These 60 new ATTA members, along with 11 already active members from Norway, joined as a result of the ATTA’s long-standing work and partnership with NCE Tourism, Fjord Norway and Innovation Norway. These 71 members now make up approximately 29 percent of the ATTA’s total European membership of 247.
“The ATTA/NCE partnership is progressive and we see it as a strong model for long-range planning for destinations,” said ATTA President Mr. Shannon Stowell. “NCE and Fjord Norway are working on innovative solutions that we believe other destinations could emulate to create systemic industry change.”
Upcoming projects between the ATTA and NCE Tourism during the next few years are expected to include AdventureConnect events, AdventureWeek events and/or AdventureEDU programs. ATTA members from Norway have already been trained through a special introductory webinar and will be able to leverage their memberships by networking and contributing their knowledge and increasing expertise to the growing adventure tourism community.
Kristian B. Jørgensen, Managing Director of Fjord Norway and ATTA Advisory Board member said, “We see this partnership as a powerful way to bring public and private sectors together and as an opportunity to contribute Norway’s expertise to the adventure tourism community for the benefit of the industry as a whole.”
Marcel Niederhauser, NCE Tourism Senior Consultant added, “The partners in the NCE Tourism – Fjord Norway cluster recognize the importance of international collaboration in order to make the adventure travel vision become a reality – a vision that the cluster shares with the Adventure Travel Trade Association.”
NCE Tourism – Fjord Norway is involved in organizing the third annual 2014 International Adventure Conference which is set for late November in Sogndal in Western Norway. The ATTA’s Executive Director of Europe, Chris Doyle will speak at the event and spearhead Fjord Norway’s first ATTA AdventureConnect networking event during the conference.
