30/07/10, 05:40:37 EDT

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ATS` conference goes in Eastern Europe

traveldailynews.com

The Annual Meeting and Fall Conference of the American Tourism Society (ATS) will take place in two different historic cities located in the Lower Silesia region in the Southwest of Poland as the organization announced.

The ATS general sessions will take place October 21-23 in Wroclaw, followed by a Travel Mart In Poznan, Oct 24-25. In both cities, the ATS conference venues will be the SAS Radisson Hotel. The announcement was made by ATS Executive VP, Don Reynolds.

"In theatrical terms, we`re going off-off Broadway," says Mike Stolowitzky, president of the American Tourism Society. "We`ve been off Broadway most of our existence, having conferences in Russia and Eastern Europe, when practically nobody else was going at the time. And then, finally, when others did start going where we had been for years, we opened up new venues, in the Middle East, with conferences in Jordan and Israel, for instance, bringing in tour operators who had never been there before."

"But in Wroclaw, we`ll be going off-off Broadway, opening up a beautiful area where few Americans go now. I`ve said often that the smaller the place, the warmer the welcome. The people in Wroclaw will be giving us an unbelievable welcome, I`m sure."

Alex Harris, CTC, Chairman of ATS, say the organization`s "mission of bringing the world together couldn`t be better suited" to describe the Wroclaw meeting. "Eastern Europe has been an emerging market for some time now, but there is much more beyond the popular cities of Prague, Budapest and Krakow—today`s American traveler is looking for new venues."

"Making our membership familiar with new places of historical, cultural and tourist value is an important ATS goal. Exchange of information and ideas with our counterparts in Poland and Central Europe provides an incentive to US tour operators not to be missed. The Poznan Tourism Fair, where attendees will meet with travel industry members of the entire Central European area, is a meaningful addition to ATS` annual fall gathering."

New ATS Initiatives Reynolds said that ATS will use the Fall Conference in Lower Silesia to launch several new initiatives. One such initiative is the unveiling of the new ATS Strategic Plan.

Phil Otterson, Executive VP, External Affairs, Tauck World Discovery and Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee stated, "Our objective was to develop a plan that would build the future of the organization based on the success of the past." He added, "this will be an historic moment for ATS as we unveil key elements of the Plan that will determine this new direction." The Plan features membership development, new partnerships, education, marketing and media relations.

At the Wroclaw Conference, ATS will also introduce its new Tourism College. In keeping with the ATS policy that the organization give back something to the destinations where it meets, several past initiatives proved a big success with everyone concerned. The new formalized Tourism College, which will take place for one day at each meeting, will focus on four different groups that would benefit from education about tourism. The first will be for high school students interested in the tourism industry, the second for college students seeking career opportunities, the third for government officials involved in economic development and the tourism ministries and tourist offices and the fourth for travel industry professionals.

Following the ATS general sessions and Tourism College in Wroclaw, ATS delegates will proceed to nearby Poznan, where they can participate in the Travel Mart. ATS will sponsor a workshop focusing on the US Market for the leading travel agents and tour operators from Central and Eastern Europe who will be attending the Travel Mart.

Pre-conference Tour of Lower Silesia: October 19-21, 2007

A pre-conference tour of Lower Silesia, scheduled for October 19 to 21, will feature castles and churches, resorts and spas. Jan Rudomina, ATS Vice President/Secretary/Treasure and Member of the ATS Executive Committee, said that Fall is the perfect time to see all these places. In the Karkonosze Mountains, which form the Polish-Czech border, the two most important sites on the Polish side are Karpacz and Szklarska Poreba. Much of the area is a national park, and the source of the river Elbe.

 Printable Version  | published Sep 10, 2007