Educational travel facilitates deeper, more enduring connections between travelers and the communities they visit through strong interpretation, experiential programming, and meaningful engagement. The Educational Travel Consortium is a membership organization dedicated to promoting lifelong learning through travel and advancing the field of alumni and affinity travel. ETC and its Annual Educational Travel Conference offer professional development, mentoring, and networking opportunities for the travel planners at alumni associations, zoos, museums, cultural, and conservation organizations who are responsible for the planning, management and/or marketing of alumni, member, and donor travel programs, as well as the tour operators, travel suppliers and country/regional destinations serving this sector of special-interest and lifelong-learning group travel. The Annual Educational Travel Conference is the world’s only travel industry meeting to bring this exclusive group of professionals together, under one roof, for several packed days of outstanding educational sessions, keynotes, and collegial roundtables designed to address a variety of critical and timely topics, as well as skills workshops, networking opportunities, and special events. A major focus is on product development, particularly in the areas of cultural, as well as conservation-related, customized itineraries.