Beautiful things happen when people come together in community
By Norie Quintos
For the last 13 years, at every World Summit since 2011, a core group of 16 has met at a Mexican restaurant—in Anchorage, Alaska, in Gothenburg, Sweden, even in Swakopmund, Namibia.
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The once strangers from 10 countries from Argentina to Nigeria met on a pre-conference trip before the Summit in Chiapas, Mexico.
“It started out bad and went downhill from there,” recounts Maria Elena Price of Experience Plus, a cycling tour operator based in Colorado and Italy. “Many in the group plan trips for a living and this was a lesson in everything you are not supposed to do.”
At one point, two people were left behind at a panorama point because the guide forgot to do a head count. But the misadventure bonded them like no other. They created a Facebook group called the Adventure Tequila Group. “We’re friends for a lifetime,” said Alper Ertubey of Hike’nSail Turkiye. “In good times and bad.” When a disastrous earthquake hit Turkey in 2023, he and others rallied the ATTA community to raise funds for tents and sleeping bags. “It was a very bad time,” remembers Ertubey, and the Tequila Group provided vital moral support.
“I feel like the secret to our community is that the overwhelming majority of people in it are there because of passion,” said Shannon Stowell, ATTA’s CEO. “I mean, who starts an adventure travel business because they think they’re going to get rich? No, they love rafting. They lovebirds. They love to learn about Indigenous culture. We all do it because we’re passionate about something. And when you’ve got an industry that’s platformed on passion, it is different. It does break the rules.”
People Who Care About the Planet
Many have leveraged the community to build their businesses. Jeff Bonaldi was a New York banker who went on his first hike in 2012. He instantly fell in love with nature and adventure and built The Explorer’s Passage over nights and weekends until he quit banking in early 2018 to run the company full time. “This community is filled with people who care about their clients and the planet,” says Bonaldi. He built his entire business through ATTA contacts, content, and tools. “A majority of our local tour partners are ATTA members, and we met them at events orgot introduced by other members.”
This intangible and generous spirit has also enabled the adventure travel community—which represents a small segment of the travel industry—to accomplish outsize goals, influence the broader industry, and lead on environmental issues and conservation. “This community exemplifies the ‘united we stand, divided we’re weak’ adage,” notes Stowell. “Our industry is made up of so many amazing passion-driven but small businesses. On their own, they’re drops in the ocean. But as a collection of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses, we punch way above our weight.” The nonprofit Adventure Travel Conservation Fund (ATCF) is just one achievement, born out of a collective desire of individual members to give back and to conserve the places they bring travelers to visit. ATTA initiatives such as advocacy for women’s leadership, and Tomorrow’s Air, offering carbon solutions, have also arisen and expanded with member input and support.
Many Conservation Initiatives are Still in Place
One of the most ambitious and fondly remembered summits occurred in 2013. The first in Africa, Namibia showcased the power of community-based conservation tourism. “There were a lot of fourth and fifth timers attending, plus people who had been coming since the earliest days of Seattle and Whistler,” said Natasha Martin, then a liaison between ATTA and the Namibian government. “We were able to design an event that we knew the community would love, and which would at the same time deliver benefits to the destination and to the Namibian tour operators.” Twelve years later, many conservation initiatives and business partnerships are still in place, and North American arrivals remain a significant part of the high-value tourism in Namibia.
There are thousands of smaller and more personal impacts of the last 20 years—lives enriched by personal connections with others who share a love of places, nature, and culture, and a commitment to protecting the planet. There have been no fewer than 10 marriages within the ATTA community. Nicola Wilson and Roy Ortiz first met at Adventure Week Tierra del Fuego in 2017. Wilson is co-founder of Vancouver-based Finisterra Travel, and Ortiz co-owner of Tourist Ed Chile. They kept running into each other at various ATTA events and eventually began a long-distance relationship. Their longest separation was five-and-a-half months early in the Covid-19 pandemic. In September 2024, they celebrated a small family wedding in British Columbia.
“It’s not surprising I found my husband within this very warm and accepting community where everyone is really easygoing, kind, and trustworthy,” says Wilson.
Mar Naibi and Loren Siekman, who met at the 2014 Summit in Killarney, Ireland, also started out as friends. Naibi was working for the Snowmass, Colorado, tourism office, and Siekman had founded the tour company Pure Adventures, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. When Naibi was diagnosed with a brain tumor, Siekman visited her, first at her parents’ house—they happened to live near him—then at her place in Aspen. “He was always so reliable; I knew I could rely on him in all things.” The couple got married in 2021 and took a delayed honeymoon to Portugal in 2024. They now run the travel company together.
Of course, the most famous married couple to come out of the ATTA community is Shannon Stowell and Gabi Stowell, ATTA’s vice president for regional development, who met in 2011 at an event in Florianopolis, Brazil. “I was surrounded by ATTA friends and colleagues when I met Gabi,” says Stowell. “And many of them were there when we got married in Monroe, Washington, in 2015.”
Even death cannot break the circle of community. When Charlie Altekruse decided to attend the 2022 Summit in Switzerland, two years following the passing of his wife—longtime ATTA member Barbara Banks (of California-based Wilderness Travel)—he didn’t expect the wholehearted welcome he received. “I didn’t know anyone because I had never attended these events with Barbara, but so many people embraced me, literally and figuratively,” says the public affairs consultant for Native American tribes. “Here is a group of people who want to share the world and the beauty of the world and to facilitate those connections for people. I instantly felt in community with Barbara and these wonderful people she spent time with. It was one of the most profound experiences I’ve ever had.”
For Roberto Gallo, the 29-year-old son of the late Rafa Gallo of Costa Rica-based rafting company Rios Tropicales, it was much the same. “I came to my first Summit in 2024 in Panama,” said Gallo. “There were so many people who knew my father, and then they shared so many great stories that I hadn’t heard yet. But what made it even better was that they didn’t just take me as Rafa’s son. They said, ‘Okay, now you are part of the ATTA community as well.’” Gallo took the company, which had closed, and re-imagined and re-opened it as Rios Lodge, with a new focus on the accommodations. He’s working on the many leads and connections made from attending three ATTA events. “Beyond business, I can say I have so many friends across the world now, people I can stay with. And that’s something that not any community offers—these strong bonds that cross borders.”
In the early years of ATTA, its members often referred to themselves as “a tribe.” Though the term is now understood to be culturally insensitive and its use discouraged, it is indicative that members think of themselves in such close, almost familial, terms. If it is a family, it’s one that has always welcomed newcomers. For the Adventure Tequila Group, for example, friends of the core members were always welcome to the annual dinners. “Once you attend one Mexican dinner, that’s it, you’re in the group,” says Maria Elena Price. “We’re not exclusive in that sense. And I think that’s somewhat of a proxy for how the ATTA is. Anybody who wants to join can, though you’re going to have to listen to us reminisce on some of the craziness we went through. But that craziness is in itself a metaphor for all the crazy things that we in the travel industry have to deal with.”
For more travel tips and ideas for groups, be sure to Download the June edition of Leisure Group Travel and Subscribe for FREE
Norie Quintos is a contributing writer to National Geographic and a travel communications consultant. She has been active in the ATTA community since she attended her first Summit in Aviemore, Scotland, in 2010. She is on the board of the Adventure Travel Conservation Fund and a member of the Adventure Tequila Group.
