About NAGTA
Mission
To connect every organization and professional involved in North American group travel in 1 association, and to make group trips easier to plan, sell, and operate.
The gap we fill
Group travel is 1 supply chain with several trade associations, each holding 1 link of it. Motorcoach operators have their associations. Tour operators and the destinations that court them have theirs. Student travel, inbound operators, and the faith, bank, and alumni planners each have a body or a conference of their own. Hotels, restaurants, small-vehicle operators, and the volunteer who runs 1 bus a year belong to none of them, and no body holds the planners and the suppliers in the same room.
Two things follow. The planner side is split into tribes by who they plan for, and each tribe's list is held by a magazine or a conference rather than an association. And the suppliers every trip needs have no home that also holds the planners who buy from them. A hotel group-sales manager who wants to reach church groups today has to buy a booth at a conference.
A single-chain association changes that. A planner joins once and finds every category of supplier, in every region, in 1 directory. A supplier joins once and is visible to every planner tribe. Demand data can be aggregated across the chain. Standards of conduct can be written for the chain rather than negotiated trip by trip. And entry is free, which removes the only reason a small planner or a small restaurant has never joined anything.
How NAGTA started
North American Group Travel Association was organized as a District of Columbia nonprofit corporation on 09/03/2026. Its first acts, taken in its first days on behalf of motorcoach operators, were a petition for rulemaking to the Secretary of Transportation concerning the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's public presentation of Safety Measurement System data, and 2 Freedom of Information Act requests to that agency dated 09/04/2026. The membership program, the code of conduct, and this site followed in the same season.
Our principles
Free to enter, for every category. Nobody is asked for money to join, and the marketplaces stay free for planners permanently.
Neutral. NAGTA's own directory never ranks members by what they pay. Priority placement exists only on the marketplaces described below and is labeled there.
Whole chain. Every category that touches a group trip is eligible, including individual professionals.
Member-driven. Programs are delivered on demand: members submit requests for action through the portal, and the board sets priorities.
Members' data belongs to members. Aggregate demand signals are published; individual member pricing and customer lists are never shared or sold.
Plain dealing. A code of conduct, a broker-disclosure rule, and a dispute channel between members.
Speaks for cohorts, not for itself. Advocacy is taken up for the part of the industry a matter concerns and is disclosed as such.
How NAGTA is governed
NAGTA is a nonprofit trade association. It is governed by a board of directors and organized with a Founding Member that holds the statutory vote under the District of Columbia Nonprofit Corporation Act. The board is planned to grow to 1 director from each major member category, drawn from founding members, so that independent directors hold a majority. Any transaction between NAGTA and a company connected to an officer or director is approved only by directors with no interest in it, on written comparability data and recorded minutes. NAGTA's officers are President, Secretary, and Treasurer.
Members in the trade sense (Introductory, Listed, Associate, Sustaining, and Leadership Circle) and Full Members hold the program benefits and, for Full Members, the advisory rights stated in the Membership Terms. They do not vote for directors. The Membership Terms, section 13, explain what "member" means under our Articles and Bylaws.
What NAGTA owns, and what it does not
NAGTA owns its name and marks, the nagta.org domain, the member roster and directory, the code of conduct and standards, the newsletter and research, and its advocacy record. It collects dues and sponsorships and sells nothing else.
Groupbinder (the planning platform), Charter Bus Directory, Group Hotel Index, the attractions directory, the request-for-proposal infrastructure, priority placement, and the payment and messaging integrations (together, the marketplaces) are owned and operated by a separate company in which NAGTA's founder holds an interest. NAGTA holds no ownership interest in any of them, receives no share of their revenue, takes no fee per request for proposal or per bid, and is not a party to any transaction made on them. NAGTA endorses and distributes them as member benefits under a written, non-exclusive agreement that NAGTA's disinterested directors approve, and receives services under that agreement. Wherever the words "NAGTA member marketplaces" appear, they describe that sponsored relationship. Your use of any marketplace is governed by its own terms and privacy policy.
Groupbinder and the marketplaces are owned by a separate company in which NAGTA's founder holds an interest. NAGTA holds no ownership in that company, takes no fee per request or bid, and receives nothing for these links.
The only member data the marketplaces read from NAGTA is your tier flag, which sets your member-benefit status and whether you receive requests for proposal, and your public directory record for display. NAGTA never sells or transfers member contact lists to anyone.
The public summary
North American Group Travel Association (NAGTA) is a nonprofit trade association, organized in the District of Columbia on 09/03/2026, for everyone who moves, houses, feeds, entertains, or plans a group trip in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Joining is free. Every organization enters as an Introductory Member with the full benefit set for 12 months, or 24 months for founding members who join before the public launch, and nothing is ever billed without the member's own order. Members get a full profile in a directory whose order is neutral, every request for proposal in their categories and service area, the NAGTA Member seal, a template library, a request portal, webinars, a newsletter, research, and a dispute channel between members. Planners also get Groupbinder, a free planning platform, and the marketplaces free forever. NAGTA speaks to regulators for the part of the industry a matter concerns, never takes partisan positions, and never ranks its members by what they pay.