ATRA is a membership organisation that seeks to bring together an academic and practitioner community around core areas of interest in adventure tourism and outdoor recreation, from guiding or participating in nature-based tourism to adventure education and therapy. The aim is to create a forum for the dissemination of research into adventure tourism, its key dimension being the dynamic between theorists and practitioners, which is crucial to keeping the research cutting-edge and industry-relevant.

ATRA was established at the second International Adventure Conference on the Isle of Skye, Scotland in 2013. It was the relationships and consensus built during the first two conferences that led directly to the creation of ATRA. Since that time, the hosting of the conference has rotated to countries as diverse as Norway, Ireland and Spain. New Zealand hosts the next IAC in late 2022.

ATRA is co-ordinated principally by:

Peter Varley at the University of Northumbria, UK and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway

Steve Taylor at the University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland, UK

Jelena Farkić at the University of Greenwich, London, UK