Discover Silesia at American Tourism Society's Fall Conference

TravelTalkMEDIA, August 28th, 2007

August 28, 2007 - New York, New York - American Tourism Society (ATS) announced that its Annual Meeting and Fall Conference will take place in two different historic cities located in the Lower Silesia region in the Southwest of Poland. The ATS general sessions will take place October 21-23 in Wroclaw, followed by a Travel Mart in Poznan, Oct 24-25. In both cities, the ATS conference venues will be the SAS Radisson Hotel.  The announcement was made by ATS Executive VP, Don Reynolds.

"In theatrical terms, we're going off-off Broadway," says Mike Stolowitzky, president of the American Tourism Society. "We've been off Broadway most of our existence, having conferences in Russia and Eastern Europe, when practically nobody else was going at the time. And then, finally, when others did start going where we had been for years, we opened up new venues, in the Middle East, with conferences in Jordan and Israel, for instance, bringing in tour operators who had never been there before. 

"But in Wroclaw, we'll be going off-off Broadway, opening up a beautiful area where few Americans go now. I've said often that the smaller the place, the warmer the welcome. The people in Wroclaw will be giving us an unbelievable welcome, I'm sure." 

Alex Harris, CTC, Chairman of ATS, say the organization's "mission of bringing the world together couldn't be better suited" to describe the Wroclaw meeting. "Eastern Europe has been an emerging market for some time now, but there is much more beyond the popular cities of Prague, Budapest and Krakow—today's American traveler is looking for new venues. 

"Making our membership familiar with new places of historical, cultural and tourist value is an important ATS goal. Exchange of information and ideas with our counterparts in Poland and Central Europe provides an incentive to US tour operators not to be missed. The Poznan Tourism Fair, where attendees will meet with travel industry members of the entire Central European area, is a meaningful addition to ATS' annual fall gathering." 

New ATS Initiatives
Reynolds said that ATS will use the Fall Conference in Lower Silesia to launch several new initiatives.  One such initiative is the unveiling of the new ATS Strategic Plan.  Phil Otterson, Executive VP, External Affairs, Tauck World Discovery and Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee stated, “Our objective was to develop a plan that would build the future of the organization based on the success of the past.”  He added, “This will be an historic moment for ATS as we unveil key elements of the Plan that will determine this new direction,” The Plan features membership development, new partnerships, education, marketing and media relations.

At the Wroclaw Conference, ATS will also introduce its new Tourism College. In keeping with the ATS policy that the organization give back something to the destinations where it meets, several past initiatives proved a big success with everyone concerned. The new formalized Tourism College, which will take place for one day at each meeting, will focus on four different groups that would benefit from education about tourism. The first will be for high school students interested in the tourism industry, the second for college students seeking career opportunities, the third for government officials involved in economic development and the tourism ministries and tourist offices and the fourth for travel industry professionals.  

Following the ATS general sessions and Tourism College in Wroclaw, ATS delegates will proceed to nearby Poznan, where they can participate in the Travel Mart. ATS will sponsor a workshop focusing on the US Market for the leading travel agents and tour operators from Central and Eastern Europe   who will be attending the Travel Mart.

Pre-conference Tour of Lower Silesia: October 19-21, 2007
A pre-conference tour of Lower Silesia, scheduled for October 19 to 21, will feature castles and churches, resorts and spas. Jan Rudomina, ATS Vice President/Secretary/Treasure and Member of the ATS Executive Committee, said that fall is the perfect time to see all these places. In the Karkonosze Mountains, which form the Polish-Czech border, the two most important sites on the Polish side are Karpacz and Szklarska Poreba. Much of the area is a national park, and the source of the river Elbe. 

Both Karpacs and Szklarska Poreba are among Poland's premier ski resorts, with several hotels and lodges dedicated to winter sport, along with up to date facilities on the slopes. An unusual site in Karpacs Gorny is a Norwegian stave church, moved here from Norway in the mid 19th-century. 

In Ksiaz, pride of place is taken by its castle, often called "the pearl of Lower Silesia," dating back to the 13th century. At its peak during the period 1509 and 1941, when owned by the House of Hoschbergs, many fortifications were replaced by beautiful terraces. The Nazis demolished much of the castle during their brief tenure, and the Soviet Red Army finished off their efforts. But from 1952, restoration work has been underway, with results that are gorgeous to behold. It's one of Europe's larger castles, third biggest in Poland and the largest in Lower Silesia. The castle hosts offices of The European Center and the Scientific Research Institute of Ksiaz.  

Czocha Castle, in the town of Lesna on the Kwisa River, is well known to many Harry Potter fans, presenting Magic Schools of various kinds for the past four summers. ATS delegates, however, will appreciate it simply for its 13th-century magnificence, or what is left of this former Czech royal residence, as it has been heavily transformed since a bad fire in 1793. (The basement is stocked with instruments of torture, of course.)  

The Churches of Peace in Swidnica, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, are located in Jawor (Church of the Holy Ghost) as well as Swidnica (Church of the Holy Trinity) and are said to be the largest timber-framed religious buildings in Europe, though the 1849 Kerimaki Church in Finland (capacity 5,000) says it is the world's largest wooden church. Built in 1652, following the Thirty Years' War, they resulted from Catholic Austrian Emperor Ferdinand III allowing their construction in a rare show of religious tolerance toward Lutherans, hence the name Churches of Peace. Even so, the emperor allowed only three churches to be built (the third burned down in 1758) and they had to be outside the town walls and to be constructed in just one year using only wood, without nails. And still they stand after more than 350 years! Incidentally, the Lutherans says these were the first churches in the world that were built by Protestants for Protestants, earlier churches that Protestants took over having been Roman Catholic beforehand. The church at Swidnica can hold up to 7,000 persons. More at http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1054. 

The Wellness Spa (Polish name Szczawno-Jedlina Spa) in Szczawno has been going strong since 1601, with hot waters that are mainly bicarbonate-sodium-calcium-magnesium oxalates, they say. The building is elegant, the Spa Theatre even more so. According to their website, the waters are good for disorders of the locomotive organs, respiratory, urinary, cardiovascular, alimentary, endocrine and metabolic systems, types I and II of diabetes, neuroses and psychosomatic disorders! They say they have the best equipped Balneological Institute in Poland and a fitness club, sauna, solarium, the works. They are the only spa in Poland to offer pneumatic chamber treatment, useful in treating asthma. There are 1,000 beds in 14 sanatorium facilities. More information at www.uzdrowisko.szczawno-jedlina.pl. 
For more information on the ATS Fall Conference in Upper Silesia visit  www.americantourismsociety.org. 

About ATS - Bringing the World Together  The American Tourism Society (ATS) was established in 1989 by a group of US tourism industry executives.  It is a nonprofit, nonpolitical travel industry organization focused on transformational destinations, whose membership includes tour operators, hotels and resorts, international airlines, cruise lines, Government Tourist Offices, meeting and incentive planners, travel agents, tourism educators and public relations and marketing firms dedicated to promoting, developing and expanding high-quality, reliable travel between North America and the ATS destination areas: the Baltics, Central and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean / Red Sea Region and Russia. ATS holds semi-annual meeting and trade shows hosted by different destination countries each year; has a website www.americantourismsociety.org.  

For more information on The American Tourism Society: 149 Madison Avenue, suite 602, New York, NY 10016, USA - Phone 212.893.8111, Fax 212.893.8153; email: info@americantourismsociety.org

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