BTB Attends Outdoor Retailer Show With ATTA

The BTB and representativesfrom the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) visited with key adventure outdoor retailers and adventure magazines at the recently held Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City, Utah July 20-24th, to explore tourism marketing partnerships for Belize.

The Outdoor Retailer Show is the world's largest outdoor sports industry gathering in the world with an attendance of over 21,000 people, bringing retailers and media together with over 1000 brands in the business of producing and selling the active outdoor lifestyle. Brands include Timberland, The North Face, TEVA, Columbia Sportswear, Patagonia, Ocean Kayak, Nike, Merrell, and buyers include REI, The Sports Authority, Cabelas, Nordstrom, and thousands of other retailers. Media players include Outside Magazine, National Geographic, Men's Journal and hundreds more, including non-endemics like WSJ, Forbes, and Newsweek.

BTB's Marketing Director, Shakira Tsai participated in several meetings with the Adventure Travel Trade Association and the retailers of outdoor adventure products from well-established brands such as ExOfficio, Osprey, Marmot, Kelty, Eagle Creek, and TEVA. Meetings were also held with adventure magazines including Backpacker Magazine and National Geographic. The objective was to explore marketing partnerships with the publications; brands and their retail outlets and the adventure consumers they both target.

Noteworthy to mention is that TEVA who visited Belize in May this year to promote their 2010 catalogue in 400 stores across the U.S. launched their new products at the show. As a result, Belize was prominently featured in their booth display. The meetings in Utah are expected to growth similar partnerships for Belize. 

For 2010, the BTB is exploring the possibility of working with the ATTA and the organizers of the Outdoor Retailer Show as a means of further promoting Belize to this captive audience that has a strong adventure customer base in North America.