Adventure Tourism Research: A Guide to the Literature Link to published version (original) (raw)

adventure tourism literature review

This paper provides a review of current literature in regard to defining adventure tourism. Adventure tourism is a substantial industry sector which to date has received relatively little research attention.

Adventure tourism: a perspective paper

Tourism Review, 2019

Purpose This paper aims to demonstrate the importance of adventure tourism in tourism the tourism industry and in tourism research. Apart from giving an overview of current literature and discussion, this paper also looks into future trends in adventure tourism. Design/methodology/approach This paper looks at the state of the art of adventure tourism re-search and discusses current trends. Based on literature, it gives an overview of the development of adventure tourism, the current situation and how adventure tourism will develop in the future. Findings This paper discusses the development of research in the field of adventure tourism and propagates that research should be increasingly focussing on theory building. The work by Rantala and Rokenses (2016) was the much-needed kick-start to lay the groundwork for a theoretical framework. The last few years have seen a rise in older tourists embarking for adventure trips, as well as families. Younger adults seek microadventures nearby ...

Adventure tourism: meanings, experience and learning

This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues.

Adventure tourism as a research tool in non-tourism disciplines

Tourism Recreation Research, 2014

Tourism research can gain broader academic recognition if findings from tourism research become relevant to, and cited within, other academic disciplines. Adventure tourism can provide opportunities for ground breaking research on wide-ranging issues such as: motivations for human mobility; individual economic valuation of high-rarity, low-probability experiences; volunteer assumption of physical personal risk, and its legal consequences; positive and negative effects of tourism on conservation; psychological models of human emotions; the anthropology of interactions between highly disparate human cultures; the use of autoethnography as a research tool; construction of social capital and cohesion; altruistic or competitive behaviour under severe stress; the design of communications systems; establishment and operation of human relationships involving extreme personality types; the physiology of acute stress; and human perceptions of risk and emotion, the passage of time, and the purpose of life. From an academic perspective, adventure tourism is much more than simply a substantial subsector of the mass tourism industry. It is an opportunity to conduct more widely relevant and recognized research, publishable in tourism journals yet also citeable in other disciplines. Keywords: adventure tourism experiences; research tool; cross- disciplinary research.

Adventure tourism products: Price, duration, size, skill, remoteness

Tourism Management, 2007

To test whether commercial tourism products in different adventure activity sectors have different functional characteristics, I took part in tours offered by 75 operators worldwide and analysed price per person per day, duration, prior skill requirements, remoteness, group size and client-toguide ratios. There is an enormous range of variation. Some activities overlap but some are clearly distinguishable, on commercial as well as operational criteria. Products can be arranged on a scale from low-volume, high-difficulty, high-price to high-volume, low-difficulty, low-price. There are recognisable signatures for some subsectors, but not all.

A Tri-Method Approach to a Review of Adventure Tourism Literature: Bibliometric Analysis, Content Analysis, and a Quantitative Systematic Literature Review

Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research

This article provides an objective, systematic, and integrated review of the Western academic literature on adventure tourism to discover the theoretical foundations and key themes underlying the field by combining three complementary approaches of bibliometric analysis, content analysis, and a quantitative systematic review. A total of 114 publications on adventure tourism were identified that revealed three broad areas of foci with adventure tourism research: (1) adventure tourism experience, (2) destination planning and development, and (3) adventure tourism operators. Adventure tourism has an intellectual tradition from multiple disciplines, such as the social psychology of sport and recreation. There is an underrepresentation of studies examining non-Western tourists in their own geographic contexts or non-Western tourists in Western geographic contexts. Our findings pave ways for developing a more robust framework and holistic understanding of the adventure tourism field.

Scoping the nature and extent of adventure tourism operations in Scotland: how safe are they

Tourism Management, 2005

This paper reports the findings of the first interdisciplinary study of Scotland's adventure tourism sector which is now promoted as one of the new drawcards for domestic and overseas visitors by the National Tourism Organisation-VisitScotland. An analysis of a national survey of adventure activity operators highlights the development of this sector, the characteristics of operators, the way their businesses have been developed and the significance of independently owned and managed small firms in this sector. The survey also examined the characteristics of visitors and markets using adventure tourism products provided by these businesses and the safety issues which these operators faced in managing these types of activities. Based on data collected and application of research techniques from safety management, the injury rates among participants in these activities are reviewed. The growth potential and possible obstacles to this nascent industry sector in Scotland are also examined. r

Sources of challenge for adventure tourists: Scale development and validation

Tourism Management, 2013

h i g h l i g h t s Seven challenge sources of adventure tourists were identified. Intrapersonal challenge: insufficiency of adventure tourists' resources. Interpersonal challenge: relationships with partners; partners' ability; competition. Activity challenge: difficulty of the activity; equipment problem. Environment challenge: the uncertainty of the environment.