Are you trying to decide whether the Adventure Travel World Summit is worth attending? Whether you’re an adventure tourism operator weighing the investment, a destination marketing organization considering your presence, or an industry professional who’s heard the name but never quite made it — you’re in exactly the right place. This is my honest, first-time account of what it’s like to attend ATWS, hosted in 2026 in one of the most extraordinary cities in North America: Quebec City.

Here’s what I assumed going in. I’ve been to industry conferences. I know the rhythm: convention centre, PowerPoint presentations, the obligatory networking cocktail hour that feels more like a business card exchange than an actual conversation. I expected ATWS to be bigger and more international — but fundamentally the same. And Quebec City, a city I have visited many times and love deeply (honestly, it’s in my top three cities in the world), I thought I knew well. I thought I’d seen her at her best. I was wrong on both counts.

I attended the 2026 Adventure Travel World Summit in Quebec City as an accredited media delegate, invited by Destination Quebec City and the Adventure Travel Trade Association. It was my first ATWS and I went in curious. I left as an ATWS’s biggest fan as if I had just left a Taylor Swift concert, singing it’s praises, reliving the highs, and rapidly posting pictures and stories on my social media. 

While this article will dig into all of the elements of what made ATWS but some of the highlights that still sit with me include hiking through autumn foliage on a mountain hike with strangers from twenty different countries who felt like old friends by kilometre three. Elk sliders from northern Quebec and s’mores from the Fairmont Chateau Frontenac, eaten in the stunning and historic Voltigeurs de Québec Armory. Kicking off ATWS with 800 of the world’s adventure travel community celebrated around me. 

Outside of the conference, Quebec was a glow, and I capitalized on every moment, like starting off my day with a morning run and having the entire cobblestone streets of Old Quebec entirely to myself, my footsteps echoing along the Dufferin Terrace while the city still slept. Sitting around a candlelit dinner table with women who had chased stories on every continent, leaving me inspired and humbled, only a conversation with strong, confident industry leaders can do.  

And then there was Wade Davis — who made a room full of adventure travel professionals go completely silent, and then gave all of us permission to hope. 

If you’re deciding whether to attend ATWS, this is everything you need to know. 

Pre-Conference — Adventure Day: The Hike That Started Everything

The Adventure Travel World Summit doesn’t begin with a keynote. It begins with an adventure.

The day before the conference officially opens, ATWS invites delegates to sign up for the “Day of Adventure” so you can experience the host region firsthand. While the list was long and filled with a diverse selection of experiences, I chose the Valley of Giants hike in Jacques-Cartier National Park. 

Known as one of Quebec’s most dramatic glacial valleys, I was inspired by the dramatic scenery of the changing leaves and was excited to get my camera out to capture the beautiful scenery that is unique to Quebec during the fall. Our group started off hiking the Cascades Trail, a gentle trail that meandered along the forest stream, over wooden footbridges, small waterfalls, and flourishing forests. 

Into the Forest With Strangers

I looked around at the people on the trail with me and realized: these were travellers from all over the world. Different languages, different continents, different corners of the adventure travel industry. But everyone was carrying the same thing — an excitement for being somewhere new, a reverence for wild places, and a genuine curiosity about each other.

By the third kilometre, with Quebec’s autumn foliage blazing around us in every shade of red and gold, something clicked. I felt the way you feel when you walk through the door at Christmas and your whole family is there. That warmth, that sense of welcome — from a group of people I had met two hours ago. That’s when I knew this was somewhere different. That’s when I knew what the ATWS hype was all about.

👉 Plan Your Visit: Adventure Day is included with your ATWS delegate registration. Groups are invited to register in advance — check your delegate portal for your activity. Activities vary by year and include hiking, kayaking, cycling, and cultural immersion experiences throughout the host region.

Night One — Opening Night: Quebec Goes All Out

If Adventure Day sets the emotional tone, Opening Night sets the visual one. And Quebec City did not hold back.

A Welcome You Won’t Forget

As we arrived at the venue, Voltigeurs de Québec Armory the entire Quebec City host team was lined up at the entrance, clapping and cheering each one of us as we entered the main venue. Eight hundred adventure travel professionals walked through a receiving line and welcome that only Quebec can offer. The best part? It was completely sincere and made me so proud as a Canadian to know that my country was being showcased with such energy and passion.  

Inside, the entire province of Quebec was waiting for us. Different stations were set up to represent different regions of the province — the Laurentians, Baie-James, the Gaspésie, the Eastern Townships. At each one you could dine, craft, learn something, or simply be entertained. The food told the story of Quebec through the gastronomy lens. I started with elk sliders from northern Quebec — wild, rich, perfect. I ended with s’mores made with on site chefs from the Fairmont Chateau Frontenac. In between, I ate and drank my way through a province I thought I knew and discovered I’d only scratched the surface.

I won’t pretend I wasn’t emotional. I’m Canadian. Most of the 800 people in that room were not. And to stand there and watch the world fall in love with my country — with its wilderness, its flavours, its culture and people — that hit differently.

👉 Plan Your Visit: Opening Night is included with full ATWS delegate registration. The venue and programming change each year to reflect the host city and region. Visit adventuretravel.biz for current registration details.

Conference Days — The Learning, The Connections, The Marketplace

Once the conference officially opens, the schedule fills fast. Sessions, meals, networking, and the centerpiece of the whole event — the Marketplace. Here’s how to navigate it.

The Sessions: Education With Edge

ATWS sessions aren’t generic industry content. The speakers are practitioners — people who have been to the places, built the businesses, made the mistakes, and come back with hard-won insight. Sessions cover everything from sustainability and responsible tourism to media strategy, destination storytelling, and the future of adventure travel.

I was honoured to be invited to present at one of the sessions — a panel on how to pitch media effectively. We had tourism operators and destination representatives pitch us live on stage, and then we gave honest, real-time feedback on what worked and what didn’t. It was nerve-wracking to critique people’s work in front of a room, but the response was overwhelming. People came up to me afterward saying it was one of the most practical, useful sessions of the whole conference. (shout out to Tartanbond for coordinating) The honesty mattered. If you go to ATWS, don’t skip the sessions that make you a little uncomfortable. Those are usually the best ones.

The Marketplace

The Marketplace is where ATWS earns its reputation as a business event, not just an inspiration conference. It’s a structured speed-meeting format: tourism destinations and operators on one side, buyers and travel professionals on the other. This open, unscheduled marketplace happened in the lobby and allowed for delegates to meet face to face, with some meetings lasting minutes and others transitioning into lunches and dinners. (The best type of networking, more on that below!) 

Media Marketplace

As official Media I was invited to attend Media Markeplace which is a separate event where Media all sit a table and people line up to meet with us. I want to be honest: I wasn’t fully prepared for the volume. The demand was such that I switched from 12-minute meetings to 6-minute meetings on the fly, just so everyone got a turn. I looked up at one point and saw hundreds of people working the room — an entire ecosystem of the global adventure travel industry, doing business in real time. I met people I would never have otherwise encountered. Destinations I’d never thought to pitch. Partnerships that are now in the works. I couldn’t be more excited. 

The Lunches: My Favourite Networking Tool

Conference lunches are underrated, and ATWS does them well. With no assigned seating means you’re sitting next to someone new every time. My favourite moments of the whole conference were the lunches — sitting down at a table full of strangers, saying, “welcome to Canada, where are you from?” and having the conversation spiral into an hour of shared stories, swapped contacts, and at least one introduction that’s already turned into something real.

Don’t eat lunch in your room. Don’t eat with the same people every day. The lunches are where ATWS does some of its best work.

The Night Off: A Dinner Table Worth Flying Across the Country For

Midway through the conference, delegates get a free evening — no programming, just the city. Go explore. Quebec City at night is one of the most beautiful things you’ll see in Canada and the culinary scene is world class. 

I was invited to a private dinner with a group of women leaders in the adventure travel industry. I’m not going to share the details, because some conversations are meant to stay at the table — but I will say this: if I had flown to Quebec City only for that dinner, it would have been worth it. 

One hundred percent. 

The quality of conversation that happens when you put passionate, experienced, values-driven women in a room and let them actually talk — that’s the thing no conference agenda can manufacture. It’s the thing ATWS makes possible simply by gathering everyone in the same city.

Quebec City — Explore Her on Your Own Terms

The conference is inside. But Quebec City is right outside the door. Use the early mornings, the free evening, and any gaps in the schedule to actually experience the city. She will reward you.

The Morning Run — Having Quebec City to Yourself

On the first morning of the conference, I set my alarm early and went for a run. It turned out to be one of my favourite runs of the year. 

I started on the Plains of Abraham — the vast, open park above the city where the famous 1759 battle was fought and where, in autumn 2026, the trees were starting to turn and put on a show. Running along the edge with the St. Lawrence River glinting below, I felt the city open up around me. I took the stairs down toward Old Quebec and out onto the Dufferin Terrace — that long, iconic boardwalk in front of the Fairmont Chateau Frontenac — and then down into the Quartier Petit Champlain.

At six in the morning, the city felt like it was mine. The cobblestones, the flower boxes, the painted shop fronts that look like they belong in a fairy tale. I ran though Place Royale, the beautiful historic square that during the day is wall-to-wall with tourists and in the early morning is perfectly, completely quiet. I found myself slowing down, not to catch my breath, but because I didn’t want to stop looking. If you’ve only ever seen these places in the middle of a summer afternoon, you haven’t really seen them.

👉 Practical Note: The cobblestones in Old Quebec can be uneven — wear proper trail or road running shoes, not fashion trainers, if you’re doing this route. Some sections of Dufferin Terrace close seasonally; check conditions before heading out. The Plains of Abraham are free and open to the public year-round.

The Don — My Non-Negotiable Quebec City Meal

Every time I come to Quebec City — and I come often — I go to The Don. It’s non-negotiable.

The Don is a funky vegan restaurant tucked into a corner of Old Quebec, and I know what you’re thinking: vegan food in Quebec, the province of poutine and maple-glazed everything. Trust me on this one. The food is fun, flavourful, deeply satisfying, and exactly the kind of meal that fuels you rather than slows you down. In the middle of a conference where you’re running on networking energy and not quite enough sleep, it’s exactly what you need.

👉 Plan Your Visit: The Don — https://donresto.com/ Full vegan menu. Reservations recommended during conference weeks and peak tourist season.

The Talk That Stopped the Room — Wade Davis and the ATCF

I have seen a lot of keynote speakers in my career. I have sat through a lot of presentations. I want to be very precise about what I am about to say: Wade Davis is the most powerful speaker I have ever heard.

An Hour That Reframed Everything

Davis — anthropologist, ethnobotanist, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, author, filmmaker, UBC professor — spoke at an event hosted by the Adventure Travel Conservation Fund during the summit week. The talk was about his life spent immersed in cultures around the world. About what those cultures have taught him. About what we lose when they disappear. About what it means to be a storyteller in a world that is changing faster than our stories can keep up.

He ended on hope. Not the easy, packaged kind — the kind you have to earn. The kind that looks at how hard things are and chooses to believe in something anyway. He talked about the power of storytelling as a form of preservation, of connection, of resistance. In a room full of people who had dedicated their lives to adventure travel — to getting humans off the couch and into the world — it was truly transformational.

I walked out and signed up for an ATCF membership on the spot. Not because it felt like the right thing to do in the moment, but because I wanted to be part of the work. The Adventure Travel Conservation Fund supports conservation and community development projects in adventure travel destinations around the world. If ATWS is what converts you to the community, ATCF is what keeps you accountable to why the community matters.

👉 ATCF Insight: Adventure Travel Conservation Fund — learn more and become a member at adventuretravelconservationfund.org. ATWS conference delegates are often offered a membership rate at the event; check your delegate materials.

Adventure Travel World Summit Quebec City — What I Take With Me

I came to ATWS Quebec City as someone who loves travel, loves Quebec, and loves this industry. I left as someone who for the first time was able to connect with the global community of people doing this work — seriously, passionately, responsibly. This isn’t just about celebrating where we are, it’s being in the room with industry leaders from around the world who want to lead the way on what the future of tourism looks like globally. 

What stays with me: the hiker from India who helped break the ice on our hike and connect us by teaching us Bollywood dance poses on a bridge.  The Equador tourism rep who unveiled a new way to experience the Galapagos. The women at that dinner table who challenged my thinking and helped me see a challenge through a new lens.  And Wade Davis, standing at a podium in Quebec City, asking all of us to keep telling the stories that keep the world connected.

Quebec City, for her part, was magnificent. She always is. But there’s something about experiencing a place you love through the eyes of people who are seeing it for the first time — the wonder is contagious. 

Things to Do in Quebec City Beyond ATWS

• Walk the Dufferin Terrace at dusk — the view of the St. Lawrence from the boardwalk in front of the Fairmont Chateau Frontenac is one of the best in Canada (Photographer hit, walk up the hills and get as high as possible) 
• Explore the Plains of Abraham — free, open, and deeply historic; in autumn the foliage is extraordinary
• Wander the Quartier Petit Champlain — the oldest commercial district in North America, beautiful, walkable, full of independent shops and restaurants
• Take the funicular from Place Royale — connects the lower town to the upper town and offers one of the city’s great photo moments
• Visit the Musée de la Civilisation — world-class, bilingual, endlessly engaging; plan at least two hours
• Walk through the Fairmont Chateau Frontenac — even if you’re not staying there, the lobby and history are worth experiencing
• Find a table in the Saint-Jean-Baptiste neighbourhood — away from the tourist centre, this is where locals eat; wander until something catches your eye
• Cycle the river paths — the bike trails along the St. Lawrence are flat, beautiful, and a completely different way to experience the city
• Explore Quebec City at night – here’s a dedicated article to all of my favourite places to go and things to do in Quebec City at night. 

Practical Information for Planning Your ATWS Trip

Quebec City Is Waiting for You

There are conferences you attend that leave you inspired, but with no action. ATWS is not that conference. Weeks later, I’m still processing conversations I had in hallways, at lunch tables, on a mountain trail with leaves in my hair. The professional relationships that started at ATWS are already turning into real things — trips, partnerships, stories that I can’t wait to tell.

Quebec City is one of the most extraordinary cities in North America — a place that somehow feels both European and distinctly, proudly Canadian. Walking its streets, you feel history underfoot and taste it in every meal. The adventure travel community chose this city as its 2026 home, and Quebec City delivered in every possible way. The cobblestones. The castle. The cliffs. The river. The foliage. The people. The food. The welcome.

If you are in the adventure travel industry and you haven’t been to ATWS, go. If you’ve been to Quebec City and thought you knew her, come back. And if you’re doing both at the same time — welcome to the experience I just had. It will change how you see your work, your world, and the city that made it all possible. Plan your trip. Quebec City is waiting.

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