Online Hub for Adventure Travel Gains Instant Following

Adoption of Online Social Networking Resources Fuels Networking, Business

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. March 05, 2009

SEATTLE, WA, March 6, 2009 - Blogs, Groups, Forums and Videos are fueling the rapid adoption of a vibrant new online networking hub for the global adventure travel community launched today by the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA).

Dubbed, "The Hub," the ATTA's central digital meeting space is offered to encourage its members to become more active in the global adventure travel community and to build partnerships, create new business opportunities and discuss pressing issues. The Hub is offered exclusively for adventure travel trade professionals representing nearly 500 corporate and organizational ATTA members covering six continents.

In its first two weeks since its 'silent' launch, The Hub has attracted more than 60 companies whose executives are sharing expertise and conducting business-to-business discussions. Additionally, users are posting Blogs, photos and videos on a range of adventure-relevant issues, projects and initiatives.

"Our Hub puts a new channel of relationship building and networking front and center for our members," said ATTA President Shannon Stowell. "It allows our growing community to connect immediately, efficiently and cost-effectively on a very specific set of subject matter and vital business interests. Plus, it's delivered in a format that offers members a creative, fun and productive way to stay engaged in between physical world networking events, trade shows and our Adventure Travel World Summit."

In an industry where business progress often is heavily dependent on sharing stories, conveying powerful visual elements, negotiating complex matters, and regularly communicating through different cultures and languages, ATTA's Hub offers powerful Web tools and features that allows for more effective communication between people. In particular, the integration of video and photo sharing helps users to convey special projects and initiatives that can offer others inspiration, guidance and new ideas to implement within their organization. Evidence already exists that geographic barriers are becoming less of an issue within The Hub. Leading executives from tourism boards and tour operators based in South Africa, Peru, Cambodia, Switzerland, Australia and North America have already connected and collaborated online with cross-continental colleagues.

Beyond serving as a more practical function for the ATTA with one-stop-access to association benefits, The Hub empowers site users to introduce new groups or forums for community consideration. Topics originally seeded in The Hub by the ATTA include: sustainable tourism, use of social networking tools, and indigenous tourism development. For the ATTA, a key objective of The Hub is to allow for organic growth and progression of industry dialogue on current news, issues and other matters of import to the adventure travel trade. New Hub users have recently initiated several discussion groups including such gathering spots as, "PR & Marketing Adventures," "Adventure Travel Video," "Adventure Twitters," "Social Media Engagement," and "Corporate Social Responsibility."