C'est avec fébrilité qu’AEQ a participé à l’édition 2022 du Sommet mondial du tourisme d’aventure (Adventure Travel World Summit), qui avait lieu du 3 au 6 octobre à Lugano, en Suisse. Nous étions présents aux côtés de nombreux acteurs de notre milieu, notamment l'Alliance de l'industrie touristique du Québec, Vallée Bras-du-Nord, Saguenay Aventures, Parc Aventures Cap Jaseux, Aventure Rose-des-Vents, Fjord en kayak, Destination Québec Cité et Tourisme Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.
Organisé annuellement par l'Adventure Travel Trade Association, ce sommet accueillait plus de 750 délégués du monde entier (voyagistes, médias spécialisés en plein air, etc.), en personne pour la première fois depuis 2019. Au cours de ces quatre jours bien remplis en ateliers, discussions et activités de réseautage, nous avons réfléchi aux récents défis auxquels notre industrie a été confrontée et envisagé des options innovantes et réfléchies pour l'avenir.
Voici les résumés des conférences qui y ont été présentées, ainsi que des liens vers les présentations.
Technology’s impact on consumer behavior is transforming every facet of business, within the travel industry and beyond. To open the 2022 Adventure Travel World Summit, we welcome Somi Arian, a transition architect and technology philosopher, who brings us a cross-industry outlook on the latest research in tech behavior and how it is redefining tourism and the future of work. From the millennial disruption to decentralized finance or “De-Fi”, the implications of technology ripple across industries and encourage us to stay relevant in a changing business landscape with evolving work cultures.
The Best Data You’ve Never Seen
Join Edmund Morris of Equator Analytics and Arnie Weissmann of Travel Weekly for a radical, bizarre, and fascinating exploration of the impacts of travel and tourism using a revolutionary new data system. Edmund first wow-ed ATWS delegates in 2018 in Salta, Argentina, with his findings on the economic impacts of adventure travel. Three years later and he has taken things a few steps further. This session explains why the Mona Lisa was voted “the world's most disappointing attraction,” shows how adventure travel can solve the problem of overtourism, and how by changing itineraries, operators can have an extreme influence on emissions. With a short presentation and an in-depth interview with Arnie, we explore how big data and a suite of new tools can make sustainable impact data accessible, helping destinations, accommodations and operators integrate traveler impact as part of the traveler experience. Join us for this discussion if you are a decision-maker, developer, business-owner, destination manager or simply interested in better understanding travel impacts.
Adventure Needs Nature: Assessing your Biodiversity Impact
The urgency and importance of protecting animals and nature involved in tourism, and the animals and people indirectly affected by its operation, has grown in recent years.. The unwanted media attention generated by unscrupulous animal interactions and public concern, has caused many tour operators to ditch animal-based activities, whilst others are confused about what is appropriate to sell. Fundamentally, healthy biodiverse ecosystems are vital to adventure tourism and the destinations we love to visit. Through adopting the right policies and procedures, your travel business can help bring greater value and protection to animals and nature, and fulfill your CSR and SDG obligations. Delivered by the animal protection tourism specialists, ANIMONDIAL, and fortuitously occurring on World Animal Day, this session serves as a hands-on preview to the self-paced online course developed in partnership with the ATTA and available to anyone in tourism, which provides guidance on how to navigate the complexity of this topic while providing the tools required to mitigate risk, safeguard clients, protect local livelihoods, and ensure best practices.
Digital Business Transformation: Communication Strategies
Adventure travel operators excel at risk management and communication in the field. But what about assessing the risk your business takes by not engaging with your target market in the digital space? The vast majority of people who book adventure trips want to communicate with the travel seller in the planning phase of the customer journey, and they expect to communicate with you in the digital channels they prefer. With an increasingly diverse market and widening age profiles, travelers are comfortable using social media, SMS, and messenger platforms such as WhatsApp and WeChat. As operators, communication is your core business - we have honed the skill of communicating stories of the places we visit and interpreting nature and culture in person - now it is time to transfer those skills into the online customer journey. If you can adjust your communication style and evolve with technology, your conversion rate will go through the roof. In this session, strategic advisor and adventure specialist Peter Syme will provide guidance on how travel providers can transfer those skills you’ve honed in the field into your business strategy in order to keep up on the endless drip of technology as it continues to flow through every aspect of the travel industry.
Moving into Climate Stability: Transitions in Transport
The latest reports from the U.N.-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlights the vital importance of transforming key sectors in our society, in particular transportation. While climate restoration scenarios show that transport sector emissions must fall by 20 percent by 2030, demand projections for 2022 and beyond indicate growth in both the road sector (which makes up 75% of transport emissions) and the aviation sector. Learn from new research and local leaders from Switzerland and abroad about strides in the transport sector along with innovative airline solutions moving the needle with sustainability initiatives - and see how consumers are reacting. Gain valuable insight into the role that emission reductions, when paired with a portfolio of land, ocean, and technology-based solutions, must and will play in keeping Earth’s climate stable.
Keynote Panel: The Water Bearers: Women's Role in Tourism's Recovery
Thought leaders, decision-makers, community leaders, and role models bring their global perspectives shaped through a variety of different life experiences and share their visions and guidance for how women will play a key role in tourism's recovery. As this panel discussion will show, the role of women in tourism's equitable recovery is playing out from indigenous communities to the trailhead to the boardroom. After a conversational panel discussion, there will be time for questions and reflections from the audience.
Keynote: Fire - Our World in Transition
Fire is the only one of the four elements that humans can produce themselves. It is transformational and transitional. Fire has been crucial to human survival and evolution. It is destructive but also a regenerative part of the natural cycles of death and rebirth. As we simultaneously look back on the history of adventure travel and envision our future, we consider all transitions that affect our daily lives: energy, governance, economy, and narrative. In this keynote address with adventure travel veteran and educator Jean-Claude Razel, we pause for a moment to think in alternative ways about how we will all be living on earth in the near future. As mired in consumerism and distractions as we are, while we navigate humanity’s existential crises, we grapple with the unlearning it takes to motivate our own transition and fiery rebirth. Even amidst smoke and ash, we can make choices based on the inconvenient truth we all face, connect to the vibrant tribe of all living creatures, find purpose and engage towards a desirable future.
The First Mile of the Journey to Net Zero
Taking on the transformational journey towards perfect sustainability and net zero can be daunting. The growing pressure to do so while attempting to emerge from our sector's biggest crisis, adds more weight to the shoulders. Behavioral scientists know that the challenges that are most difficult for humans to act on are the ones that are intangible, extended into the distant future and overwhelming in complexity -- all characteristics of the sustainability and climate crisis. But they also advise that the best way to attack such challenges is by making a start with what is possible and easy now. There is a wealth of footprint optimisations that can be achieved through the application of small, easy and low-investment behavior-change tactics. This talk will reveal how some of the global leaders in sustainability and climate action are covering The First Mile of their journeys by adjusting human behavior towards doing things smarter and better. Lessons learned and best practices will be shared for both destinations and businesses eager to take action. (Vidéo)
Tools for Navigating Unpredictability in the Business of Adventure
The fundamentals of your business have to be strong if your passion for adventure is to translate into a sustainable, profitable business. In order to survive through periods of instability and to seize the opportunity to make wider contributions to communities and the environment, the “boring basics” (cash flow, taxes, local regulations, risk management, understanding your competition, planning for the unknown, honing a unique brand, effectively communicating your values, building a team culture globally or remotely, and so on) must be mindfully learned and dutifully molded. When serious upheaval threatens our businesses, we must pivot or reframe, but we retain and re-use that fundamental knowledge. Through a series of examples from within the ATTA community and some time to workshop real-world examples, this session will provide an exchange of ideas and tools you can use to survive the future challenges, local and global, your business is bound to face. (Notes de discussion)
Adventure Accelerator #1: The Future of Cycling Tourism
As regions across Europe (and the globe) become increasingly known for their cycling cultures, the results are undeniable: cleaner air and safer streets, healthier and happier citizens, better rural connectivity, lower transport emissions, and more vibrant local economies. Bicycle tourism also benefits and contributes greatly to this world cycling culture and to destination economies. Some nations are investing in national cycling strategies, and predictions are that bicycles will outsell cars in Europe by 2030. This session will provide a platform to discuss how the adventure travel industry can support cycling tourism and infrastructure, not just as a sector of travel but as a lifestyle, in order to enact a more sustainable future. (Notes de discussion)
Adventure Accelerator #2: Liability Insurance
It is more important than ever for travel providers to evaluate how they are protecting their businesses from unexpected events. Commercial liability requirements vary from region to region, and for adventure providers it can often be nearly impossible to acquire. Exchange challenges, opportunities, and successes with peers and create a funnel of feedback for insurance providers to review through the ATTA community.
Adventure Accelerator #3: Content Marketing
In the realm of digital marketing, it has been said that "Content is King", but not all content is created equal. Travel brands have some of the best content on the planet, but it takes thoughtful planning, research, optimization and distribution to maximize its value. To succeed at SEO today, content creators must orchestrate a scalable production machine that serves the needs of their audiences and search engines alike. This session invites you to explore the tools, formulas and strategies that will allow you to dramatically increase the value of your content marketing efforts.
Adventure Accelerator #4: Outfitting: Gear Solutions for Travel Suppliers
Between inventory management, training staff to care for and repair gear, remaining both competitive and safe by keeping new equipment on hand (while supply chain issues continue and prices increase), and circulating old equipment without straining a local waste resources, travel suppliers have complex relationships with their sister organizations in the outdoor gear and apparel world. Some businesses walk the line between being travel providers and outdoor brand retailers. Some stay firmly in one lane or the other. Outdoor brands can be both a necessary burden and a welcome problem-solver for leaders in the travel industry. This Accelerator provides an opportunity for delegates to share cross-industry partnership ideas and ways of working together to evolve those relationships and increase the use (and re-use) of high quality gear and apparel through the travel supplier to the end consumer.
Adventure Accelerator #5: Payments & Transactions
Travel businesses are always seeking to improve existing payment processes and financial transactions - between one another, for their customers, and across borders. This Accelerator will provide an exchange of challenges, ideas, and solutions for travel businesses struggling to process payments at reasonable rates and improve client satisfaction.
Adventure Accelerator #6: Climate Action Strategies
Starting with an example of one operator’s journey to “Carbon Label” their trips, we’ll then open the floor to questions or examples that others are doing to measure carbon footprints, offset or negate them, communicate climate mitigation strategies to travelers, and collaborate through partnerships to move the needle towards a net-zero travel future. (Notes de discussion)
Adventure Accelerator #7: Funding Conservation
Leaders in the adventure travel community have always been passionate about protecting threatened communities, cultures, and wild places to preserve their cultural and recreational integrity around the world. The passion is born out of necessity, in fact. But when that’s not your primary business structure, what kind of funding can be tapped to support conservation efforts and how can the same leaders collaborate to raise each other up?
Adventure Accelerator #8: Managing the Freedom to Roam
The “freedom to roam” is integral to adventure travel – and not just in spirit. Space and access to awe-inspiring lands and waterways are essential and dependent on conservation efforts and community development initiatives. The Nordic countries, among other European nations, have perhaps best exemplified this by enacting laws empowering both citizens and guests to roam freely, as long as travelers behave respectfully and responsibly. This session will breed an exchange of ideas, challenges, and solutions for striking the right balance and communicating what is expected of everyone when freedom depends upon responsibility. (Notes de discussion)
Adventure Accelerator #9: Working with Travel Advisors
The session will delve into current trends and requirements from the perspectives of tour operators, wholesalers, and travel advisors (or travel agents) and uncover new opportunities for collaboration between these important sectors. Facilitated by members of the ATTA’s Travel Advisor Advisory Group, delegates are encouraged to come prepared to network and discuss what value their businesses bring to sustainable adventure, nature and cultural tourism seekers.