Join
us on beautiful Catalina Island for our annual APTA National Forum, where we
bring together the leaders, movers and
shakers of our niche market, with chapter
officials and members from all 13 local chapters in attendance. This is
a superb networking opportunity, and the ideal occasion for suppliers
and buyers to meet and mingle. The Forum is open to all
members,individuals and corporate.
This year's Forum will have a strong focus on conservation,
sustainability and responsible tourism. With over 70 registrations
already
Thank You… A special thanks to the our Los Angeles chapter for
hosting our Forum and The Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce, Catalina
Island Resorts and Services, Catalina Express, Catalina Canyon Resort &
Spa and Supper Shuttle for their participation and sponsorship.
Please contact our events coordinator Valerie Sewell for information on
how you can sponsor or contribute, we are currently looking for
speakers, sponsors and of course you – attendees!
To contact Val please email her at:
events@apta.biz
New Leadership at the Association for Promotion of Tourism to Africa
New York, NY, August 8, 2012 - After a truly transformational tenure at the
helm, Kathryn Monaco, Primary Sales Consulting, Inc., has seen her term as
president of APTA come to an end in accordance with the association's bylaws
on term limits. She is succeeded by Yvette De Vries, senior tour consultant
with the highly regarded Connecticut-based safari specialists, African
Portfolio. De Vries has been active in the African travel industry ever
since relocating from Stellenbosch, South Africa and an earlier life in
Public Relations in the South African wine industry, in the late 1990's. She
has come up through the APTA ranks from the board of the North East chapter
where she served as membership chair, program chair and vice president,
before joining the APTA national board to serve as director of corporate
membership, and more recently, trade events.
She was instrumental in bringing APTA to the attention of the organisers of
the New York Times Travel Show, and has been coordinating their very
successful "Focus on Africa" Trade Seminar for the past three years. She
feels "incredibly fortunate to be landing in this space at this point in
time, with such an innovative and energized group of people on my side.
Being an all-volunteer group aimed at delivering professional results, is a
formidable undertaking, but my fellow board members are each so ideally
suited to their positions and complement each other so perfectly, that I
think we can achieve anything we set our minds to. If there is ever an
Olympic event for volunteer team work, we could bring home gold!"
APTA is an all-volunteer, business-to-business trade association formed by a
group of industry leaders in 1980 to promote tourism to Africa as a whole.
The mission would be, and still is, to promote tourism by way of inspiring
and educating its individual members to confidently sell the continent as a
tourist destination.
The Association for Promotion of Tourism to Africa (
www.apta.biz)
creates networking and marketing opportunities for its members, and serves
as a platform for buyers and sellers in the African travel and hospitality
industry to meet, mingle, learn from each other and do business.
* The executive and chapter board officials are travel professionals,
already actively involved in various other capacities throughout the
industry. They share their time and resources voluntarily out of a common
passion for the African continent and Indian Ocean islands, their potential
as travel destinations, and for the benefits of tourism to their
environments and peoples. There are currently 13 active chapters across the
country.
* Individual members are travel agents and tour operators in the USA who
already sell Africa, or are interested in selling Africa as a tourist
destination.
* Corporate members are the tourist boards of African countries, airlines
that operate flights in and into Africa, hotels, lodges, operators and other
service providers in the Africa and the USA.
APTA is pleased to announce their new national board effective August 1,
2012:
-
Yvette De Vries, African Portfolio - President
-
Marion Valderrama, Protea Travel - Treasurer
-
Cheryl Velsor, SAA Vacations - Corporate Membership Director
-
Sandy Henneman, Celebrity Life Travel - Individual Membership Director
-
Jane Behrend, Emerging Destinations - Newsletter & Website
-
Sunit Sanghrajka, Alluring Africa - Communications & Social Media
-
Valerie Sewell, Travel Square One - Events Coordinator
-
David DiGregorio, South African Tourism - Advertising & Marketing
-
Beth Lincoln, Sinbad Travel - Administrator
-
Kathryn Monaco - Past President
For more information
Contact David DiGregorio South African Tourism
