Associations in North America

Founded in 1946, the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education (CHRIE) seeks to unite educators, industry executives and associations. CHRIE is a global advocate of hospitality and tourism education in schools, colleges, and universities offering programs in hotel and restaurant management, foodservice management and culinary arts.

The Official trade organization of the cruise industry, Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), also works in partnership with over 16,000 affiliated travel agencies throughout North America to ensure the highest caliber of cruise sales expertise and service for cruise vacationers.
CLIA was formed in 1975 under the name Transatlantic Passenger Steam Ship Conference.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) was formed in 1910 as a federation of state lodging associations throughout the United States with some 13,000 property members worldwide, representing more than 1.7 million guest rooms. AH&LA was formally known as the America Hotel and Motel Association.

The Association of Canadian Travel Agencies was established in 1977 to represent the retail travel sector of Canada's tourism industry. ACTA’s members include travel agents, tour operators, travel wholesalers and suppliers such as, airlines, hotels, destination marketing organizations, cruise and rail lines, and automobile rental companies. According to their website, in 1998, ACTA members sold four billion dollars of scheduled air service; issued more than seven million tickets; and booked about eighty percent of all airline reservations in Canada.