Adventure travel

An outdoor travel and adventure outfitter in Ottawa, Canada

Trekking in Quebrada de las Conchas, Cafayate, Salta Province, Argentina

Adventure travel is a type of tourism, involving exploration or travel with perceived (and possibly actual) risk, and potentially requiring specialized skills and physical exertion. Adventure tourism has grown in recent decades, as tourists seek different kinds of vacations, but measurement of market size and growth is hampered by the lack of a clear operational definition. According to the U.S. based Adventure Travel Trade Association, adventure travel may be any tourist activity that includes the following three components: a physical activity, a cultural exchange and connection with nature.^[1]

Adventure tourists may be motivated to achieve mental states characterized as rush or flow,^[2] resulting from stepping outside of their comfort zone. This may be from experiencing culture shock or through the performance of acts, that require significant effort and involve some degree of risk (real or perceived) and/or physical danger (See extreme sports). This may include activities such as mountaineering, trekking, bungee jumping, mountain biking, canoeing, rafting, kayaking, zip-lining, paragliding, sandboarding, caving and rock climbing.^[3] Some obscure forms of adventure travel include disaster and ghetto tourism.^[4] Other rising forms of adventure travel include social and jungle tourism.

Access to inexpensive consumer technology, with respect to Global Positioning Systems, flashpacking, social networking and photography, have increased the worldwide interest in adventure travel.^[5] The interest in independent adventure travel has also increased as more specialist travel websites emerge offering previously niche locations and sports.

Types of adventure travel

Accessible tourism

There is a trend for developing tourism specifically for the disabled. Adventure travel for the disabled has become a $13 billion USD a year industry in North America.^[6] Some adventure travel destinations offer diverse programs and job opportunities developed specifically for the disabled.^[7]

Cultural tourism

Cultural tourism is the act of travelling to a place to see that location's culture, including the lifestyle of the people in that area, the history of those people, their art, architecture, religions, and other factors that shaped their way of life.

Disaster tourism

Disaster tourism is the act of traveling to a disaster area as a matter of curiosity.^[8] The behavior can be a nuisance if it hinders rescue, relief, and recovery operations. If not done because of pure curiosity, it can be cataloged as disaster learning.

Ecotourism

Ecotourism is now defined as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education" (TIES, 2015). Education is meant to be inclusive of both staff and guests.

Ethno tourism

Ethno tourism refers to visiting a foreign location for the sake of observing the indigenous members of its society for the sake of non-scientific gain. Some extreme forms of this include attempting to make first contact with tribes that are protected from outside visitors.

Two controversial issues associated with ethno tourism include bringing natives into contact with diseases they do not have immunities for, and the possible degradation or destruction of a unique culture and/or language.^[9]

Extreme tourism

Extreme tourism involves travel to dangerous (extreme) locations or participation in dangerous events or activities. This form of tourism can overlap with extreme sport.

Ghetto tourism

Ghetto tourism includes all forms of entertainment — "gangsta rap," video games, movies, TV, and other forms that allow consumers to traffic in the inner city without leaving home.^[4][10]

Jungle tourism

Jungle tourism is a rising subcategory of adventure travel defined by active multifaceted physical means of travel in the jungle regions of the earth. Although similar in many respects to adventure travel, jungle tourism pertains specifically to the context of region, culture and activity. According to the Glossary of Tourism Terms, jungle tours have become a major component of green tourism in tropical destinations and are a relatively recent phenomenon of Western international tourism.

Overland travel

Overland travel or overlanding refers to an "overland journey" - perhaps originating with Marco Polo's first overland expedition in the 13th century from Venice to the Mongolian court of Kublai Khan. Today overlanding is a form of extended adventure holiday, embarking on a long journey, often in a group. Overland companies provide a converted truck or a bus plus a tour leader, and the group travels together overland for a period of weeks or months.

Since the 1960s overlanding has been a popular means of travel between destinations across Africa, Europe, Asia (particularly India), the Americas and Australia. The "Hippie trail" of the 60s and 70s saw thousands of young westerners travelling through the Middle East to India and Nepal. Many of the older traditional routes are still active, along with newer routes like Iceland to South Africa overland and Central Asian post soviet states.

Urban exploration

Urban exploration (often shortened as urbex or UE) is the examination of the normally unseen or off-limits parts of urban areas or industrial facilities. Urban exploration is also commonly referred to as infiltration, although some people consider infiltration to be more closely associated with the exploration of active or inhabited sites. It may also be referred to as "draining" (when exploring drains) "urban spelunking", "urban caving", or "building hacking".

The nature of this activity presents various risks, including both physical danger and the possibility of arrest and punishment. Many, but not all, of the activities associated with urban exploration could be considered trespassing or other violations of local or regional laws.

See also

• Adventure Life
• Momentum Adventure
• Canoeing
• Backpacking (travel); Backpacking (wilderness)
• Backcountry skiing
• Backcountry snowboarding; Splitboard
• Bicycle touring
• Bungee jumping
• Disaster tourism
• Experimental travel
• Experiential Travel
• Ghetto tourism
• Jungle tourism
• Long distance motorcycle riding
• Mountain biking
• Mountaineering
• Outdoor education
• Parachuting
• Paragliding
• Rafting
• Rock climbing
• Shark tourism
• Travel documentary
• Travel writing
• Zip-lining

Notes and references

1. "ATTA VALUES STATEMENT" (PDF). adventuretravel.biz. Adventure Travel Trade Association. February 2013. p. 2. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
2. Buckley, Ralf (2012). "Rush as a key motivation in skilled adventure tourism: Resolving the risk recreation paradox". Tourism Management 33 (4): 961–970. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2011.10.002.
3. "Adventure Travel". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 26 April 2013. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
4. "Citypaper online". Archived from the original on 13 October 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
5. The Development of Social Network Analysis Vancouver: Empirical Press.
6. Stan Hagen - Tourism Minister of British Columbia
7. The Equity: "Esprit rafting to be featured in commercial", Wednesday, May 14th, 2008, print edition
8. Landsel, David (11 June 2013). "7 sites for disaster tourism". Fox News. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
9. Vidal, John (2009-07-25). "Are we here just for your amusement?". The Guardian (London).
10. "XXL — Ghetto tourism". Retrieved 2007-11-10.

Further reading

• Buckley, R. (2006). Adventure Tourism. Wallingford, UK: CABI. OCLC 4802912392.

External links

• Scuba divers swim among the sharks, Fayetteville Observer