After a year of development, the Adventure Travel Trade Association (www.adventuretravel.biz) is formally announcing AdventureEDU, a professional training program designed to assist governments, associations, companies and professionals in providing the best adventure travel experience in managed-risk and sustainable practices. In order to meet demand for dynamic and real world industry needs, the curriculum is designed and delivered by over twenty hand-picked educators with extensive experience working in the industry.

Courses will be offered in person or online, across five subject areas necessary for building a successful adventure tourism market:
-  Adventure Definition and Concepts
-  Adventure Travel Product Development and Marketing
-  Operational Excellence
-  Adventure Travel Operator Safety and Risk Management
-  Adventure Travel Legal Matters

AdventureEDU is a United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)-backed training program specifically dedicated to improving the adventure tourism sector.
“With the rapid growth of adventure tourism around the world we think it is very important that the industry raise the bar to assure quality, safety and sustainability,” said ATTA president Shannon Stowell. “AdventureEDU is our contribution to support best-of-breed training that will help ensure a responsible yet thriving and growing industry.”

Successful AdventureEDU training has been provided in:
-  Saudi Arabia to help build adventure tourism as a business sector;
-  Greenland to carve out partnership and co-branding strategies;
-  Peru to focus on safety and risk management;
-  Western Balkans to educate on adventure tourism marketing and risk management;

New York, the first U.S.-based destination, with custom workshops designed to help suppliers rethink upstate New York as an adventure travel destination.
Plans for programs in early 2014 will showcase the range of custom designed AdventureEDU courses. In Macedonia a two-day training will focus on high level concepts as the region builds a strong foundation for a modern adventure tourism industry, and in Colorado more interactive training will target specific regional industry development. Programs can be a short as a half-day and as long as a week. AdventureEDU courses will initially be offered in English and Spanish.

AdventureEDU training modules will also add a focus on training professional adventure travel guides. Guides are the front line for many operators when it comes to marketing and customer service. ATTA is currently exploring how it might best support destinations seeking to improve guide services that meet performance standards for safe and rewarding guided experiences. As a first step, the ATTA has undertaken a review of existing guide training efforts around the world in order to partner with the best-in-class guide training services in the future and continue to professionalize the adventure travel industry.