• AIANTA provides education and training that enhance the ability of tribes to manage travel and tourism activities in balance with their core values and long-term goals;
• AIANTA provides authentic interpretation and representation of Native Peoples and helps tribes tell their own stories, as well as provide interpretation of natural and environmental resources;
• AIANTA encourages management practices that foster sustainable travel, tourism and recreation while protecting natural, environmental, historic and cultural resources;
• AIANTA promotes sustainable economic development and encourages small business development;
• AIANTA encourages networking and collaboration between tribes and the travel, tourism and recreation industries;
• AIANTA provides the dissemination and exchange of information within the industry; and,
• AIANTA helps tribes enhance the visitor experience on tribal and federal lands.
AIANTA was formed from a grass-roots tribal effort to grow cultural heritage tourism tools in Indian Country with the First Annual American Indian Tourism Conference in 1999. AIANTA’s mission is to define, introduce, grow and sustain American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian tourism that honors traditions and values. AIANTA’s purpose is to provide our constituents with the voice and tools they need to advance tourism while helping tribes, tribal organizations and tribal members create infrastructure and capacity through technical assistance, training and educational resources. AIANTA works on behalf of all 567 federally recognized tribes to support and promote cultural tourism in Indian Country.
AIANTA provides: a strong voice for tribes within the tourism industry; regional technical assistance and training on tourism and tourism development; strategic partnerships to build heritage tourism collaborations to public land; access to the domestic and international tourism markets in Italy, United Kingdom and Germany; new market opportunities with a destination website dedicated to Indian Country tourism, NativeAmerica.travel; and hosts the only national conference on tourism in Indian Country, the American Indian Tourism Conference (AITC).
2401 12th Street NW