Adventure Travel World Summit

Just got done doing a presentation on marketing adventure to young people. I thought the presentation itself was pretty good, unfortunately I was scheduled up against a very popular speaker who was talking about what seems to be the topic of the summit– sustainable travel. As a result pretty small turnout. But it was a very active group with lots of questions and comments. Also quite a few NOLS grads. It is always fun to hear them rave about the school.

Sustainability, responsible travel, eco-tourism. This seems to be the hot topic here. How do organizations travel in a way that has as little impact as possible on the environment and the people? It does seem the industry needs to come to a common language surrounding this. It is currently pretty confusing.

Yesterday I presented at a communications session with John Poimoroo. We had good attendence and good questions. John had been the tourism director for the state of California and now runs a marketing and pr firm.

A number of compatriots from the Adventure Collection are here: Larry Mogolonsky the director of the AC, Bill Bryan from Off the Beaten Path, Ben Bressler from Natural Habitat, Steve Markel and George Wendt from OARS and Jim Sano from Geographic Expeditions.

Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director