CEO DATELINE - Adventure Travel Trade Association staffer dies from COVID-19
CEO DATELINE - Adventure Travel Trade Association staffer dies from COVID-19
- April 2, 2020 |
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Walt Williams
The CEO of the Adventure Travel Trade Association announced Tuesday that an employee has died because of complications from COVID-19.
Aliaa Abaza, community lead for Europe, Middle East and Africa, died over the weekend after contracting the virus, ATTA CEO Shannon Stowell said in a video message to members. At the same time, he announced the Washington state-based, for-profit trade group had reduced its staff to a "bare minimum" because of the financial difficulties caused by the pandemic and has postponed two upcoming events.
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ATTA's website does not say where Abaza was based. (A LinkedIn profile for Aliaa Abaza lists her location as Egypt.) In his video, Stowell said the trade group will produce a separate tribute to its former staffer "to give her the honor she deserves." In the meantime, he wanted to speak about the challenges facing the group and the industry it represents.
"We feel a weighty responsibility to get the ATTA through to the other side of this crisis," Stowell said. "Not only for our businesses, our communities, and our people, but for the world at large who needs the adventure travel community to survive and thrive, to continue to offer healthy tourism offerings to guests.
"Because tourism is coming back. It always does. But it will look different, and we don't know when," he said.
ATTA has applied for disaster relief funds and is planning to offer a series of webinars and virtual gatherings to bring the adventure travel community together, Stowell said.
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