ATTA Events Sustainability Strategy

The ATTA’s mission is to empower a global travel community to deliver experiences that protect natural and cultural capital while creating shared economic value. Our events, which bring together our vibrant, diverse community periodically throughout the year, are important to achieving our mission. As part of our commitment to sustainable tourism, our Events Sustainability Policy, adapted from the Global Sustainability Tourism Criteria strives to:

• Maximize social and economic benefits to the local community and minimize negative impacts
• Maximize benefits to cultural heritage and minimize negative impacts
• Maximize benefits to the environment and minimize negative impacts

In our agreements with event host partners, we collaborate to align the ATTA community's values and goals with that of the destination’s in order to purchase locally, conserve water, reduce plastic use, avoid food waste, and limit energy consumption and transport within the context of each event.

Recognizing that the travel sector contributes 8 percent of all global carbon emissions, we measure the carbon emissions associated with our events, including staff and delegate travel, and budget for a combination of carbon offsetting and removal of these emissions. For more information on offsetting and removal, see Climate Action: Plain Talk Guide For Small Travel Businesses.

Exhibiting Partners

Partners are encouraged to:

• Eliminate single-use banners and consider renting a television screen for their exhibition area instead.
• Use recyclable materials such as cardboard for signage and avoid foam board and polypropylene.
• Print locally, if printing is necessary, and source recycled, sustainably certified paper options.
• Leave no trace behind by shipping out all booth properties and packing materials and donating extra giveaways.
• Break down all cardboard boxes and gather them together for easy recycling identification by the convention center staff.
  
  

A Note on Giveaways

After more than 15 years of events, ATTA has received a lot of feedback about the kinds of giveaways that are appreciated and valued and those that are not, either because of their environmental impact or simply because travel professionals have received so many through the years. If giveaways are utilized, we recommend that our partners

DO consider:

• Artisan made local crafts tied to your culture
• Edible treats, cookies, chocolates, tea, coffee
• Scarves, hats, especially locally made in your region
• Useful items like branded notebooks, pens, tote bags, hand sanitizers

Please avoid:

• Reusable water bottles (our delegates say that they have enough of these)
• Reusable shopping bags (these have been trendy for the past few years and most of us now have enough of them)
• Luggage tags
• Items that won’t travel well because they are large or breakable
• Plastic trinkets, keychains