The Journey

How a Bold Leap, Shared Values, and a Global Community Transformed a Modest Dream into a Movement Changing the Future of Travel

By Shannon Stowell

“Some journeys take us far from home. Some adventures lead us to our destiny.” C.S. Lewis – The Chronicles of Narnia.

Twenty-three years ago, I became captivated by the Adventure Travel Trade Association(ATTA). Even as a member, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the organization was operating far below its potential. I began to imagine what it could become—though my early vision was humble: a tight-knit team of three or four, focused on supporting adventure tour operators with tangible benefits like product discounts and the occasional gathering. Still, the seed was planted—and it would grow.

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I quit my job at the start-up I’d co-founded and jumped in with both feet. I knew that the ATTA would not have the income available to pay a salary for more than a year, so I tightened the belt. I sold my most precious possession-a first edition of Moby Dick-moved my family into my parent’s home while renting ours out, held a massive yard sale of leftover outdoor gear from my former company and subsisted on rice and beans. We put our house up as collateral to launch the inaugural Summit as it was the only asset we owned. No bank would loan to us so I borrowed money from a friend at Microsoft to make payroll for the first couple years. We did whatever it took to get the organization off the ground.

In the early days, I didn’t have the foresight to imagine the industry would become a major global movement. A movement that would soon see ATTA hosting events all over the world serving many different cultures and regions with an equally diverse team of passionate people. I couldn’t imagine that we would collaborate with thousands of companies and destinations and tens of thousands of people as passionate about the industry and the planet as we were.

Vocalizing Values

One thing we got right was that as Chris Doyle and I imagined what ATTA could be, with 20 years of experience under our belts, we were experienced enough to know what we hoped to achieve yet naive enough to take the leap on a wildly risky entrepreneurial venture.

In 2009, when Gustavo Timo as the head of Associação Brasileira das Empresas de Ecoturismo e Turismo de Aventura (ABETA) in Brasil pushed me to have the ATTA be more vocal about our values around the natural world and communities, I had reservations due to our financial position and the banking crisis of 2008. He didn’t relent, saying that we needed to do both. And he was right. As we became louder, vocalizing our values, it had a magnetic effect of attracting the right people to build the team, ATTA members, advisors and partners.

As the years went on, the importance of adventure travel at the intersection of commerce, culture, and conservation became clear. The Presidents of Namibia, Chile and Mexico provided opening remarks at our events. Prime ministers, princes, chiefs, governors, and other leaders also attended and endorsed this movement. We authored the 2014 State of Adventure Travel report for the UNWTO (now UN Tourism). We spoke on prominent stages like the World Economic Forum, ITB Berlin, World Travel Market, and hundreds more to advocate for a form of tourism that could be as for destinations.

The Community Powers ATTA

And it is the adventure travel community-you-who powers us. You inspire us, you push us, you support us and help us co-design the sustainable future of our industry. The friendships forged through the ATTA network are numerous and enduring, with some having even led to marriages! This network supports each other through thick and thin. Through political, natural, and other disasters, through financially hard times and mind-bending existential crises like the pandemic. I count many ATTA people as my best friends in the world, and know I have a place to lay my head nearly everywhere I go-and of course, you do too. Remarkably, despite these relationships becoming as strong as Damascus steel, our community continues to embrace newcomers wholeheartedly. It is common (after 20+ years of getting feedback) to hear new people say “I was intimidated when I walked in my first event because everyone seems to know each other-but you know what? I was immediately welcomed in with open arms and now I’m one of you!” It is not lost on me that some consider Moby Dick a powerful symbol for humanity’s quest for meaning in a difficult and chaotic world. The ATTA community brings this meaning to the travel industry and the communities in which we work!

A spirit of generosity. A common mission to make the world a better place through travel. A set of shared values. A fierceness borne of passion and entrepreneurial grit. A safe place. A world of wonder, learning and knowledge shared freely. All these combine to create a group of people and organizations in nearly 100 countries who will never rest until travel is done right by people and places.

Your support of ATTA through paying memberships and attending, speaking at, and sponsoring our events means you, too, have been part of this movement that HAS changed the travel industry for the better. You are the fuel in our engine, the north star for not only ATTA but the travel industry at large. Nearly 75 of you (at time of writing) have been members for 15 years or more!

It is a remarkable magic, no? A business community where people from wildly different religious, cultural, political, racial and language backgrounds have come together to pursue a common passion and work to change the course of history. You are amazing, you are powerful and you are on the right side of history. Let’s keep this going together, far into the future!

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”–Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings