Kathmandu, October 8:

Nepal took part in the Adventure Travel World Summit (ATWS)- 2007 held at Whistler, Canada on October 4-7. The summit was organised by the Adventure Travel Trade Association - USA (ATTA).

The Adventure Travel World Summit is a premier international trade forum for executive-level networking, keynote addresses and multi-disciplinary sessions aimed at market trends, sustainable and responsible growth, best practices and solutions oriented dialogues, debate and deliberations on critical issues hounding the adventure travel industry, states a press release. More than 500 adventure travel sector professionals from around the globe representing Tourism Boards, Destination Marketing Organisations, Airlines, Tour Operators, adventure travel agents, attractions, media, travel marketing and technology service organisations, academic institutions, research enterprises and governmental agencies participated at the Adventure Travel World Summit. ‘Conversion - transforming possibility into reality’ was the theme for this years ATWS.

Nandini Lahe-Thapa, director of the Tourism Marketing and Promotion from Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) on the occasion spoke on ‘Growing results through partnerships Agents/ Operators and Destinations’. Being a forerunner in the concept of Public-Private -Partnerships (PPP approach) in the Asian tourism industry, Nepal’s experience, lessons, best practices and efforts to promote sustainable tourism were very well received by the audience. Product diversification, research, marketing, prospect opportunities into result-oriented endeavours, growth strategies, customer acquisition, maximizing web marketing, best practices for operating in sensitive environmental destinations were some of the issues covered in the Summit.

NTB also proposed to hold the Adventure Travel World Summit in Kathmandu in the near future.