The Association of National Tourist Offices (ANTOR) celebrated its 70th anniversary on 18 July 2021. ANTOR was founded in 1951 by 10 destinations, and today membership totals nearly 60 destinations.
It is ANTOR’s aim to increase membership to 70 destinations during its 70th anniversary year. New opportunities and benefits for 2021/22 include reviewing ANTOR’s Brand DNA and a rebranding competition, the creation of an online community, quarterly research on consumer travel behaviour, and a London based networking venue.
When ANTOR was founded in 1951, France’s Director of Tourism for the UK, Maurice Vignon, was the first Chairman. He was followed by Switzerland, Norway, Austria, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, Bahamas, India and New Zealand who make up the first ten chairs of ANTOR. ANTOR is proud that nine of these destinations are still members 70 years later.
On Thursday 15 July ANTOR held its Virtual Annual Conference to kick off the anniversary celebrations. The Conference focused on ‘Uniting on Regenerative Tourism and Transformative Travel’ and featured a wide variety of speakers, including keynote speaker Anna Pollock, Founder of Conscious Travel, Ian Dockreay, Chief Executive of Equator Learning and Travel Uni, Nico Nicholas, CEO & Co-founder of Trees4Travel, and Vicky Smith, Founder of Earth Changers.
Two sustainable case studies from ANTOR members Finland and Taiwan followed, with a panel discussion including Richard Hammond, Executive Producer and Founder of Green Traveller, Karen Simmonds, Founder of Travel Matters and Make Travel Matters and Mikey Sadowski, GM of Global PR & Communications at Intrepid Travel, chaired by ANTOR chairman Tracey Poggio, on “What do tourists want or expect from regenerative tourism and transformative travel?” The conference was very insightful and attended by the majority of ANTOR members. The conference was sponsored by Equator Learning/Travel Uni, OTT, JCDecaux, and Geotourist.
“Destinations cannot ignore the future importantance of regenerative tourism and transformative travel, and the conference was the beginning of ANTOR’s commitment to both” commented Tracey Poggio, Chairman.
“Every session was extremely informative and thought provoking.”
