A few weeks ago, the commemorations that marked a year since the world went into lock down were a sobering reminder of the pandemic’s toll on our lives, our families, and our industry. Yet when we asked our colleagues around the world about their “silver linings” from the last 12 months, we were inspired by the ways their stories—both person and professional—have been forever changed. Read on to hear from them, in their own words. On Family Life I have been given the gift of spending every Friday with my 18-month old daughter, using FFCRA leave. I will treasure that time for the rest of my life—Meredith Akery, New Jersey Because we’re all at home more, my kids’ Japanese is better than ever from hearing us speak it at home together. —Kate Maruyama, Maryland I’ve loved eating lunch at home with my family most days. I’m aware this is a unique “of-the-moment” opportunity, and I’m so grateful for it.—Mark Lenhart, Washington DC I was able to spend an entire school year side-by-side with my virtual high schooler. He’ll be out of the house for good in a couple years, and I know I’ll look back fondly on this crazy time we’ve spent together. —Kate Desvenain, Virginia My son learned to walk and it was a moment that my husband and I were both able to enjoy together as a family. —Brooke Masterson, Maryland I got engaged at the National Cathedral! And even though this wasn’t an unexpected new chapter to my relationship, being together so much (so much!) has added a depth to our connection that I am thankful for. —Tess Cannon, DC On New Personal Pursuits We are normally international travelers, so our house rental on Lake Erie was just about the polar opposite of what we’re used to. It was WONDERFUL, felt as much “away” as going abroad, and reminded us about the importance of just being together. —Vanessa Sterling, Pennsylvania Our neighborhood came together in inspiring ways – with curbside concerts, home food deliveries, art projects, and scavenger hunts. While my world “shrunk” during the past year, parts of it also became richer. —Jennifer Kefer, Maryland Being furloughed allowed me more time to read than I’ve had in a long time. —Allison Rottman, China As a tribute to my maternal grandmother, I decided to enroll in a CET Customized Language Training Chinese course and read her short stories and interviews in Chinese. I’ve carved out time twice per week to focus on my language skills, which has helped my mental health when so much of my days are dedicated to childcare and pandemic-related stress; and I’ve gotten to experience a new product that CET created. I think my grandmother would be very proud to know that someone in the family is finally reading her work in the language in which it was written. —Tara Vanacore, DC Spending two months in Italy allowed us to see family, enjoy different treats from the supermarket, order a decent daily cappuccino from the local bar, and work on my lifelong dream: our Italian home. The time difference allowed greater thinking and productive time for work. I started my workday while the DC office slept, had a long break for lunch and exercise, and collaborated with my team in the afternoon and early evening. —Emma Impavido, Italy and DC On Life Lessons My daily mindfulness practice also helps a lot to cope with unavoidable changes which might happen any time. —Nova Shao, China I’ve learned that work life balance isn’t black and white for me. Having defined working hours is important, but the flexibility I value most is being able to weave my life in throughout my day. —Kelley West, Maryland All you need are a few important people in your life to get by. —Tim Baird, DC I learned to decouple my sense of self and worth from my “output” (creative work, paid work, tangible things I put into the world) and get joy and fulfilment from “input” (information, art, conversation, and, yes, binge-watching Netflix). —Malika Watson, Japan The silver lining for us as an organization has been an increased awareness and inclusion of staff outside of our DC office. Now that we’re all remote employees, we are much more inclusive of our on-site staff. —Allegra O’Donoghue, Egypt
Blog
2020 Q4 Newsletter
2020 Q4 Newsletter A Special Note About 2021 The first week of 2021 included an historic assault on the U.S. Capitol during a critical certification vote for our Presidential Election. The violence, intolerance, anger and disrespect for American foundational values and democratic systems reinforced how important our work is—to enhance understanding through travel and education. Many who have traveled beyond our shores deeply appreciate the privileges and freedoms we Americans have at home. Hindsight is 2020 It was an extraordinary year! We navigated uncharted territory for our organization, industry, and world. Our resilience was tested and we banded together with partners and colleagues alike to pave a path forward. As is tradition, ATA Executive Vice President, Chase Poffenberger, captured our year in a reflective blog post. Read the full post about both the highs and lows the year brought. We look forward with optimism to the year ahead and building back even stronger. Happy New Year Welcoming New Partners We are delighted to announce several new exclusive ATA partners who will be extending their reach, mission and message with experiential travel programs, beginning in 2021 and 2022. The Chautauqua Institution will take the unique blend of the arts, religion, education and recreation programming that happens each summer in upstate New York into the wider world. Country Living will be kicking off a new travel program for subscribers with a trip to the Country Living Fair in Nashville. will take the unique blend of the arts, religion, education and recreation programming that happens each summer in upstate New York into the wider world. The Great Courses will be working with ATA on itinerary planning and execution for new travel content. Road and Track has added two international destinations—Japan and Italy—to its new membership travel program called “R & T Experiences.” There are even more new partnerships on the horizon for 2021 that are not quite ready to go public, so stay tuned for our next newsletter Valuable Takeaways from Industry Events Our staff has been Zooming around the globe, albeit not by plane. Another silver lining of the pandemic was that events became more accessible, given their pivot to virtual. Here are highlights from just a few of the industry events we attended last quarter: Tourism Cares’ Virtual Meaningful Travel SummitThis virtual summit showcased Tourism Cares’ evolution as an organization committed to sustainability, with a focus on Colombia, a country that uses social and environmental justice to foster stability and peace. The Black Travel Alliance’s Wavelength Networking EventBlack Travel Content Creators (authors bloggers, broadcasters, journalists, photographers, podcasters, social media influencers, and vloggers) came together to increase their representation and visibility. We were delighted to meet these travel professionals who are guiding us as we seek educational travel partners who serve Black travelers, increase the number of People of Color-owned businesses, vendors, restaurants, hotels, venue, and tour staff we work with within the U.S. and in foreign destinations, and assess potential interest from BTA members in serving as content experts and tour managers on future trips. National Tour Association’s VTREXNTA’s first-ever virtual Travel Exchange demonstrated the resilience of the community of operators, suppliers and DMOs who come together each year at TREX as buyers and sellers. The 1:1 meetings were possibly more effective than in “real life” and the speakers top-notch. Chase Poffenberger, NTA’s current Board Chair, hopes to see members in person next November in Cleveland at TREX ‘21! World Tourism & Travel Council’s “One Voice – to Recovery and Beyond”This summit reinforced an important message: governments, businesses, and the health sector need to work together, both seamlessly and globally, to re-ignite the power of the travel industry. There is much to do, but the groundwork is being laid Doing the Work: Our Progress and Path Towards Social Justice After the election in November, we shared our Anti-Racism Action Plan publicly. The Plan outlines our commitment to putting diversity, equity, and inclusion at the center of everything we do. Since then, with input from our directors and teams, we have committed to concrete 2021 goals to ensure we make progress toward the metrics and loftier 10-year goals we have set for ourselves. We plan to review these formally within the organization and set the following year’s goals every January. We’ve already revised our mission statement to reaffirm our commitment to justice and equality as a central component of our organization
2020: A Year in Review
2020 Year in Review A Year of Darkness and Light As I write this post in December, I join many people who feel that 2021 can’t come soon enough! Before we turn the page on 2020, there are a few things we will never forget about this year that changed our organization. We re-imagined the work we do. As the initial shock of the worldwide shutdown wore off, we quickly pivoted from the tactical to the strategic, and started asking big, lofty questions. How we will keep travelers safe before full implementation of a vaccine? What problems can we solve for US universities? What types of new experiences will travelers seek out? How virtual can we go? The idea “incubators” we created yielded exciting results: We now enroll Chinese and Vietnamese students at our CET centers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Ho Chi Minh City Global internships have successfully moved online ATA will be the new production arm for Great Courses, the online teaching company, as it develops new travel content Partnerships with renowned commercial brands have flourished—stay tuned for more specifics in our first 2021 newsletter! We re-prioritized how we work. The pandemic hastened the need to innovate new ways to collaborate, once all staff started working remotely in mid-March. Our investment in technology over the last few years was prescient, allowing seamless cloud-based file sharing, meetings on Teams, and flexibility to accommodate a variety of time zones, from Seattle to Cairo. We implemented “Project Solidarity,” a plan that offered additional time off for all US staff to manage their lives during the pandemic. We joined the racial reckoning that fanned out across the country. The summer protests for racial justice were the catalyst to our acknowledgement of our inherent biases as an organization and to commit to anti-racist work in our workplace, our programs, and our fields. We’re holding ourselves accountable with a 10-year plan and will measure our results each year. Mourning Our Losses This Year We deeply feel the loss of David Parry, our beloved Chairman Emeritus, who died in July. Not only did Dave show us how to manage many types of crises, he also taught us what “living well” over a long life looks like: a deeply committed partnership with his wife Susan; the vigorous pursuit of alpine trails, historic trains and military history; inspiration from young people and their ideas; and a keen intellect, fed by boundless curiosity. While the details of the pandemic are like no other crisis we’ve faced, Dave’s “playbook,” his hopeful optimism, and his sense of humor are never far from us as we navigate our future. We also lost some wonderful and talented colleagues this year, as the pandemic decimated the fields of educational travel and study abroad. We remain in touch with many “alumni,” and continue to support them, however we can. Here’s to 2021! While the world has changed dramatically, our commitment to international travel and education has not. We believe in what we do. May the world that opens up again for all of us be more just, gentle and whole. We can’t wait to see you! With deep gratitude,
Anti-Racist Action Plan
ATA’s Anti-Racism Plan In early June, we stated our commitment to stand in solidarity with Black communities. We committed to unearthing and unlearning our inherent biases as an organization and to listening to the voices of Black colleagues, students, and travelers in educational travel. Our goal is to become a more anti-racist organization. We write today to share our Anti-Racist Action Plan and the first steps towards putting these commitments into action. We deem this to be a social justice plan, designed to support and guide our part in righting a wrong in our society and our world. We hope that by working towards full diversity, equity, and inclusion in our organization and our programs that we will better serve our students, travelers, employees, and communities. We know that as we evolve in this process, we will be a better partner to you and provide a more enriching educational experience for our students and travelers. As our industries recover from the impacts of the global pandemic, we have a rare opportunity to build back better. We can shape our organizations and our programs in a post-pandemic era with diversity, equity, and inclusion at the center—not the periphery— of everything we do. Our 10-year plan helps us focus on concrete actions that will allow us to do this as we rebuild and begin to welcome students abroad again in the future. Putting Our Commitments Into Action Every department at ATA contributed long-term action items and goals to the plan. Each Director will be held responsible for achieving these goals. The plan, the deliverables, and action items will be reviewed yearly. As we work towards these goals, we will update you on our progress and new initiatives that have been born as a result of this work. Actions to Transform our Workplace Hire and retain more People of Color, with the goal of having a staff that is more diverse in each racial/ethnic category. Identify and remove barriers that might be impacting our ability to hire more candidates of color. Conduct a yearly audit that focuses on retention of employees of color, and make recommendations that will enhance our retention of these employees. Continue organization-wide discussion sessions at least three times annually on racism and inequity in the U.S. and abroad. Actions to Transform our Programs Overtly include DE&I considerations in program goals, descriptions, and curricula. Create, provide, and update yearly resources for students and travelers that forefront DE&I considerations, such as information on race and racism in the countries in which we operate. Conduct a yearly audit of print and digital marketing materials that focuses on looking at our materials through the lens of diverse student experiences. Actions to Transform our Industries Commit to increase the number of People of Color-owned businesses, vendors, restaurants, hotels, venues, and tour staff we work with wherever possible within the U.S. and in foreign destinations. Continue our strong support of the Fund for Education Abroad. Support National Tourism Association (NTA) efforts to increase diversity and inclusion efforts in travel. This Anti-Racism plan extends out as far as 2030, and yet it is also just the beginning. Creating this plan required taking a hard look in the mirror, and implementing it necessitates organization-wide, sustained action. By establishing clear metrics and building mechanisms such as annual reporting and reviews into the plan, we hope to achieve this sustainability. We want this work to become an integral part of who we are and what we do. We want these actions to be woven into the very fabric of our organization, so that the work of this plan will be viewed by internal and external stakeholders alike not as an “add-on” series of steps, but instead as a key component of the ATA workplace. By achieving the goals we have set in this plan, ATA will establish a solid platform from which to extend the plan’s continuation, one that aims even higher, when the next decade arrives. In early June, we stated our commitment to stand in solidarity with Black communities. We committed to unearthing and unlearning our inherent biases as an organization and to listening to the voices of Black colleagues, students, and travelers in educational travel. Our goal is to become a more anti-racist organization. We write today to share our Anti-Racist Action Plan and the first steps towards putting these commitments into action. We deem this to be a social justice plan, designed to support and guide our part in righting a wrong in our society and our world. We hope that by working towards full diversity, equity, and inclusion in our organization and our programs that we will better serve our students, travelers, employees, and communities. We know that as we evolve in this process, we will be a better partner to you and provide a more enriching educational experience for our students and travelers. As our industries recover from the impacts of the global pandemic, we have a rare opportunity to build back better. We can shape our organizations and our programs in a post-pandemic era with diversity, equity, and inclusion at the center—not the periphery— of everything we do. Our 10-year plan helps us focus on concrete actions that will allow us to do this as we rebuild and begin to welcome students abroad again in the future. Putting Our Commitments Into Action Every department at ATA contributed long-term action items and goals to the plan. Each Director will be held responsible for achieving these goals. The plan, the deliverables, and action items will be reviewed yearly. As we work towards these goals, we will update you on our progress and new initiatives that have been born as a result of this work. Actions to Transform our Workplace Hire and retain more People of Color, with the goal of having a staff that is more diverse in each racial/ethnic category. Identify and remove barriers that might be impacting our ability to hire more candidates of color. Conduct a yearly audit that focuses on retention of employees of color, and make recommendations that will enhance our retention of these employees. Continue organization-wide discussion sessions at least three times annually on
Introducing ATA’s Comprehensive Traveling Again Plan
Introducing ATA’s Comprehensive Traveling Again Plan On August 6, 2020 the Department of State lifted the Global Level 4 Health Advisory, almost six months after it was initially put in place on March 19, 2020. While the United States continues to see a surge in new cases – a fact that has led many countries to prohibit American arrivals – the lifting of the Global Level 4 health advisory is a step in the right direction. It also happens to be Step 1 in our detailed plan for returning to travel. While this crisis is unique in many ways, it is only one of many that ATA has managed during its 70 year history. From nuclear meltdowns and natural disasters to wars and terrorism, ATA’s risk management mettle has been thoroughly tested. As we set to work on the plan, we began with a set of guiding principles: Safe and enjoyable travel is possible even before a COVID19 vaccine is widely available. By adopting the World Tourism and Travel Council’s safety protocols, ATA joins other travel companies, governments, health experts and industry associations to develop meaningful action plans to optimize recovery efforts in the travel industry. Our travelers will place greater value on health than on individual freedom when traveling in the COVID19 era. This means that we will ask each traveler to abide by a code of conduct that protects his/her safety as well as the safety of fellow travelers, trip leaders, in-country hosts, and others. Wise destination choices and clear communications to travelers are paramount. We’ve shared our thoughts about how important it is to communicate during a crisis; we also believe that wisely selecting destinations with fewer health or safety risks will speed our overall recovery. Click here to read our comprehensive return to travel plan. We can’t wait to get back out there with you!
Arena Stage in Cuba: Uncovering Inspiration
Arena Stage in Cuba: Uncovering Inspiration In 2020, Arena Stage was slated to produce Eduardo Machado’s Celia and Fidel. Having traveled to Cuba in the past, Arena Stage Director Molly Smith, jumped at the opportunity to invite donors and board members to Cuba to explore the inspiration behind the play. Arena’s goal in going to Cuba was to give patrons the opportunity to see first-hand how creatives conducted pre-production research. By choosing Cuba as the destination, donors received an authentic glimpse into this research by meeting with people in the industry and visiting some of the very places shown in the play. Had they taken a “typical” NYC or London theater trip, they would have simply attended shows without taking a deep dive into the creative process or experiencing the destination, which is vital in bringing a play to life. Our Program Team, in consultation with Molly Smith and the playwright, Eduardo Machado, designed the perfect program for Arena Stage. What they got was an experience unlike any other. The group visited the Film School of San Antonio de los Baños for an exchange with students and teachers; learned about the training of performing and visual artists in Cuba at Instituto Superior de Arte; engaged in an exchange with musicians and independent artists on a visit to the Hermitage of Monserrate with the Miguel Failde Orchestra; visited the performing arts center, Danza-Retazos and learned about their cultural project and community work; and took a guided tour of the Museo de Revolución where the group was immersed in the historical context of post-revolutionary Cuba and the political setting of Celia and Fidel. The visits on this tour spoke directly to Arena’s mission without being directly related to theater and seeing plays. Cuba provided the backdrop for the play and allowed the playwright to talk about his history growing up in Cuba and share his inspiration for writing the play. The donors and board members enjoyed a truly unique experience in Cuba, which provided the space for a sustainable travel program rooted in season programming. With these trips, sponsors of the theater are able to have deeper engagement with the creatives and a greater window into how theater is made. The Arena Stage trip to Cuba was a huge success, and ATA is already planning future trips with Arena around production of upcoming plays.
