The ATTA is an organization whose purpose is to nurture and professionalize the responsible and sustainable development of the adventure travel industry.

In defining our sector, we believe adventure tourism contains three main components for the traveler: 1) physical activity, 2) a connection to nature and the environment and 3) an immersive cultural experience. As tourism is one of the largest employers on the planet, it has a major impact on peoples’ economic well-being and the planet’s health. Futhermore, adventure tourism is inextricably dependant on human- and nature-capital; protection and promotion of these resources is key.

The ATTA serves as a community that supports and engenders these efforts. While we believe that no organization is perfect in its actions regarding responsibility and sustainability, we affirm that it should be the intent of every organization to move towards such goals. Thus, the ATTA declares its affirmation and support of the following key issues:

Tourism Ethics

The ATTA affirms and agrees with the UNWTO’s Global Code of Ethics for Tourism

Protection Of Children

The ATTA believes in the protection of children from harmful effects of tourism and is a signatory of TheCode.org

Responsibility

The ATTA believes in the universal standards put forth by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (Based on the UNWTO’s Global Code of Ethics for Tourism), and that tourism businesses and destinations should adopt the criteria specifically in these four areas:

• Demonstrating effective sustainable management
• Maximizing social and economic benefits to the local community and minimizing negative impacts
• Maximizing benefits to cultural heritage and minimizing negative impacts
• Maximizing benefits to the environment and minimizing negative impacts

Community Principles

ATTA Members — when working under the auspices as aforementioned — will treat each other and travelers with respect and professionalism and conduct business with safety, honesty and integrity. As a community, we will seek to improve our own organization’s compliance with the points noted above. As a community, we will wherever possible seek to assist other organizations and professionals within the association to achieve success, both in the pursuit of the values noted above and in business.

Note

Since the ATTA operates as a business network and as a community, it is important that ATTA curate the network with common values. While the ATTA is not a compliance organization, members that clearly fail to observe key values after being alerted and given a fair chance to remedy run the risk of being removed from ATTA membership.

However, it is our observation that most ATTA Members exemplify these values and in many cases manage projects that address or help fund key social and environmental issues.

Additional Resources

UNWTO Global Code of Ethics for Tourism
ECPAT Child Protection in Travel and Tourism
Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) Criteria